Radio Astronomy, The Square Kilometre Array and Citizen Science: Canada & Australia

April 17, 2019 | 7 pm | Doc Brown Lounge

– How we might get to Proxima Centauri B?
– Was the Big Bang real?
– What is special and general relativity?
– What is the Square Kilometre Array Canada is involved in, and will it really process the same volume of data as the current worldwide internet (spoiler – yes it will)?

Kevin Vinsen, a Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) will try and answer these questions in this public lecture, without the complex mathematics (but perhaps just E= mc^2). ICRAR is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia, with funding from the State Government of Western Australia.

Kevin’s main research interests are high performance computing at the ExaScale, developing methods for the automated classification of galaxies using multi-wavelength data, machine learning algorithms and modelling complex systems. Kevin is also working with Algoma University on the AstroQuest (https://astroquest.net.au/) project.

Kevin considers himself one of the luckiest geeks on the planet. He is paid to do what he loves – astronomy and computing with some of the biggest, baddest computers on the planet. No wonder he is always smiling.

If you want to see him speak, check out his TedX Talk here: https://youtu.be/7IYtwtwQw8A