Since 2018, the group at the University of Pretoria is growing, and their science is growing!
The technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) enables radio antennas across the planet to be used as a single, Earth-sized telescope. At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are growing in importance as the data from telescopes grows bigger.
Prof. Roger Deane at UP is running an IDIA-supported project “Artificial Intelligence enhanced wide-field VLBI surveys: precursor science to the full SKA” that takes advantage of AI for radio astronomy. His group will develop new data processing techniques based on artificial intelligence, which will be applicable beyond the field of astronomy.
The group has now grown to include 7 honours students, 4 Masters students, 1 PhD student and 2 postdoctoral researchers. They are working on projects from the imaging of black holes to using artificial intelligence to help new scientific discoveries.