High Performance Computing in Observational Astronomy: Requirements and Challenges

Scientific Programme

Venue: Bhaskara III, IUCAA (unless otherwise indicated)


Figures in brackets indicate talk duration in minutes excluding discussion

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Sunday 11.10.2009

1400-2000: Registration (Room A1, IUCAA)



Monday 12.10.2009

          (Registration will remain open from 1100 hrs onwards at Room A1, IUCAA)


0930-1100: Inauguration and Keynote I (venue: Chandrasekhar Auditorium)

Chair: A. Kembhavi

Inauguration by Dr. S. Ramakrishnan (15)

Alex Szalay (JHU, Baltimore): HPC in Optical Astronomy (30)

Peter Quinn (ICRAR/UWA, Perth): HPC in Radio Astronomy (30)


1130-1300: Optical I : Image Processing Pipelines (venue: Chandrasekhar Auditorium)

Chair: R. Srianand

Bhuvnesh Jain (U. Pennsylvania): Overview of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (15)

Robert Lupton (Princeton U.): Optical scientific pipelines: the intestinal flora, and how not to reinvent it again (35)

Adam Bolton (U. Utah): Beyond the Boxcar: Modern Calibration and Extraction of Optical Spectroscopy (25)


1400-1530: Radio I: Software Back-ends

Chair: Yashwant Gupta

P. Chris Broekema (ASTRON): The LOFAR Central Processor: design, implementation and performancei (20)

Jayanta Roy (NCRA): The GMRT Software Back-end (20)

Randall Wayth (Curtin U.): GPU based software correlation (20)

Mark Kettenis (JIVE): SCARIe FABRIC: A distributed software correlator for VLBI (15)


1600-1730: Optical II: VO Technologies

Chair: Peter Quinn

Ajit Kembhavi (IUCAA): Virtual Observatories (20)

Ashish Mahabal (CalTech): Bayesian classification of transients in real time (15)

Alex Szalay (JHU, Baltimore): Parallel Cross-matching of Large Astronomical Catalogs (20)

Vinu Vikram (MGU, Kottayam): Pymorph: Automated galaxy structural parameter estimation in Python (15)


1830-1930: Evening Lecture (venue: Chandrasekhar Auditorium)

Matthew Bailes (Swinburne U.): A Virtual Tour of the Universe



Tuesday 13.10.2009



0930-1040: Keynote session II

Chair: D. Bhattacharya

Corinne Boyer (TMT Corp.): Computing Challenges in Adaptive Optics for Large Telescopes (30)

Peter Dewdney (SPDO, Manchester): Overview of the Square Kilometer Array (30)


1110-1300: Technology I: HPC architecture and implementation

Chair: Tarun Souradeep

V. Gaikwad (Dell): HPC Reference Architecture (25)

S. Kannan (IBM): Blue Gene and Cell processors (25)

V. C. V. Rao (CDAC): GPU computing (25)

S. Yerneni (Cray): Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) systems infrastructure challenges (25)


1400-1530: Radio II: Processing Pipelines

Chair: Tim Cornwell

Ben Humphreys (CSIRO/ATNF): ASKAP Processing Pipelines (20)

Sandeep Sirothia (NCRA): A AIPS++/Glish based analysis pipeline for the GMRT (20)

V.N. Pandey (Kapteyn Inst/ASTRON) : The LOFAR off-line system and processing (20)

Sanjay Bhatnagar (NRAO): HPC processing for EVLA and ALMA (20)


1600-1730: Radio III: Future Large Telescopes and the SKA

Chair: Jayaram Chengalur

Tim Cornwell (CSIRO/ATNF): ASKAP computing model (25)

Duncan Hall (SPDO, Manchester): SKA Software and Computing: Estimating the Sizes of the Challenges (25)

Athol Kemball (U. Illinois): Imaging and calibration for the SKA ((25)


1900-2000: Cultural Programme (venue: Chandrasekhar Auditorium)




Wednesday 14.10.2009



0930-1040: Keynote session III

Chair: Duncan Hall

S. Natarajan (IBM): A Perspective on Cloud Computing (30)

Harrick Vin (TRDDC/TCS): Model-driven development of system software for large telescopes (30)


1110-1300: Control and Monitor Software Systems for Telescopes

Chair: Peter Dewdney

A.L. Ahuja (TRDDC/TCS): SACE – A Generic Control and Monitor software (20)

Vivek Mohile (Persistent Systems Ltd): Simulation based validation and testing for telescope control systems (20)

Ruud Overeem (ASTRON): Monitor and Control of LOFAR (20)

Ben Humphreys (CSIRO/ATNF): ASKAP Control and Monitoring system (15)

Lize van den Heever (SKA-SA, Cape Town): MeerKAT Monitor and Control (15)


1400-1530: High Energy Astronomy and Gravity Waves

Chair: Ranjeev Misra

S.V. Dhurandhar (IUCAA): HPC for Gravitational Wave Astronomy (35)

Gerald Skinner (GSFC): Computing challenges in Coded Mask Imaging (30)

Dipankar Bhattacharya (IUCAA): Coded Mask Imaging with ASTROSAT (15)


1600-1745: CMB and the Early Universe

Chair: Jasjeet Bagla

Eric Hivon (IAP, Paris): Challenges for CMB data analysis for Planck mission (35)

Jean-Marc Delouis (IAP, Paris): Planck HFI-DPC Software Infrastructure (15)

Tarun Souradeep (IUCAA): Challenges beyond the power spectrum of CMB (15)

Ue-Li Pen (CITA, Toronto): Epoch of Reionization data analysis pipeline (20)


Conference Banquet (8 pm onwards)



Thursday 15.10.2009



0930-1040: Keynote Session IV

Chair: V. Sundararajan

Matthew Bailes (Swinburne U.): Petaflop Computing on the Cheap (30)

Bruce Elmegreen (IBM): Computational Challenges - An Industry Perspective (30)


1110-1300: Radio IV: Pulsars, Transients and Hardware

Chair: Matthew Bailes

Mike Keith (CSIRO/ATNF): HPC for pulsar applications (20)

Ramesh Bhat (Swinburne U.): Transient searching with GMRT (15)

Keith Bannister (U. Sydney): Detecting fast radio transients with next generation interferometers (15)

John Ford (NRAO): High Performance Computing Today and Tomorrow at the Green Bank Telescope (20)

Harro Verkouter (JIVE): The UniBoard - A high-performance FPGA-based stream -processor for radio-astronomical data (15)

Shing Kwong Wong (NTU, Taiwan): Real-Time Tbps Digital Correlator in NTU-Array (15)


1400-1530: Technology II: HPC of the future: Processors, Grid and Cloud

Chair: Goldi Misra

J. Babu (Intel): The Future of Microprocessors (25)

Subrata Chattopadhyay (CDAC Bangalore): Grid Computing - the Road Ahead (25)

Badrinath Ramamurthy (HP): Motivations and Challenges for HPC in the Cloud (25)


1600-1750: Technology III: Software, Storage and Networks; Conference Summary

Chair: K.S. Dwarakanath

R. Malladi (Intel): Software tools in real-time processing (25)

N. Seetharamakrishna (CRL): Storage systems (25) CANCELLED

Goldi Misra (CDAC): Networks (25)


Jasjeet Bagla (HRI, Allahabad): Conference Summary



Friday 16.10.2009

Site visits:


Participants interested in site visits must sign up latest by 13 Oct evening for one of the two following choices:


  1. GMRT (start 8 AM return 5 PM)

  2. GMRT and the IUCAA Giravali Observatory (start 8 AM return 8 PM)


Sign-up sheet is available at the Conference Secretariat.