The most advanced telescopes at radio wavelengths are now Array Radio Telescopes (ART), arrays of hundreds and thousands of radio antennas guarding the universe like Argus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. ARTs are everywhere, from the Y-shaped Very Large Array (VLA) in the deserts of New Mexico to the rectilinear Medicina displayed dramatically in the Red Desert (1964) of Michelangelo Antonioni (pictured in the poster).

In this 2-day workshop for undergraduate, postbac and graduate students of Bangladesh, we will learn the basics of radio astronomy and synthesis arrays on the first day, and then apply that knowledge to make a sparse representation of the radio vision of an ART in python. It is a BYOL workshop, so you have to ‘bring your own laptop’ with python and jupyter-lab set up in a UNIX-based operating system (Ubuntu is an excellent choice). Eligibility criteria, registration link, and the program are given below.

Eligibility

• You have to be an undergraduate, postbac (finished BSc but did not start any other academic program yet), or graduate student currently living in Bangladesh.
• You have to be able to join the workshop in person at IUB from 9 am – 5 pm on 18 and 19 April, 2025. Online option is not available for this specific workshop, but in future CASSA will have both in person, online and hybrid workshops.
• The subject of your undergraduate or graduate studies have to be a math-intensive engineering, mathematical or natural science, or computer science.
• You should have some basic knowledge of python;. Being an expert in python is not necessary, because the students will be divided in groups for groupworks (GW) and we will ensure that each group has a variety of students with different levels of expertise in python.
• You must bring (and work on) your own laptop (BYOL) and the laptop should have a UNIX-like terminal and jupyter-lab with which you can log into a high-performance computing server. If you are not sure about the setup in the terminal and jupyter-lab, we will help you during the workshop.
• No prior knowledge of astronomy is required, but previous experience in learning or researching astronomy will be considered for the final selection of participants.
• We encourage you to browse through the online textbook Essential Radio Astronomy before appearing for the workshop, but you will not be tested on it.

Registration

• If you are eligible (based on the previous section), please click here for the Google Form for registration.
• Registration deadline: 12 April, 2025.
• List of the selected participants will be announced on 14 April, 2025.
• We specially encourage women to apply without any hesitation. At least 40% of seats will be reserved for women applicants.

Program Schedule

The following is the tentative schedule, which may be subject to minor changes until 17 April. [GW: groupwork]

1. You have to arrange your own lunch. There are restaurants, small cafeterias and eating places within a 10-minutes walking distance from IUB. If you need to pray, there is a mosque at 10-minutes walking distance from IUB.