1. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 Coordinators report First SKADS Workshop Paris 04 September 2006 Arnold van Ardenne SKADS Coordinator SKADS Project Office ASTRON, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo The Netherlands (info@skads-eu.org) www.skads-eu.org

2. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 Coordinators report SKADS Square Kilometre Array Design Study implemented as Specific Support Action A Cohering Program toward mid-2009 With 29 partners from 8 EU countries plus S.A.,Canada and Australia and collaborations to US and China “Nothing is so firmly believed as that we least know” Michele Montaingne (1533-1592)/cited IAUXXVIIthJournal Emphasizing Phased Arrays for Radio Astronomy in the next decade

3. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 SKADS Main Objectives Total funding 38M€ program EC funding 10.44 M€ Industry involved from the start to –Demonstrate SKA Scientific Viability and Readiness –Demonstrate cost-effective Engineering Solutions and Technological Readiness –Deliver a costed SKA Design Activity Scope Distribution of work (% of total) Organization & Management8 System level Aspects22 Tile Level Technologies30 Demonstrators30 Assessments and Integration Plan10

4. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 Science and the Aperture Synthesis instrument for Radio Astronomy image Correlation Imaging Station 1 2N Baseline Baseline longer Resolution increased (VLBI: ~milliarcsec.) # stations higher Improved calibration & imaging Larger collecting area Increased sensitivity (In R.A. expressed as A eff /T sys ) Other aspects: Frequency bandwidth (span, instant.) Dynamic range (in image map) RFI Configuration, Site Steaming Data, Computing power, Archiving Network performance etc. Many inderdependencies! Configuration Resolution, imaging, brightness sensitivity etc.

5. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 Design Studies 1 to8 Work has Clear objectives, Milestones and Deliverables to provide outcomes in measurable and verifiable form. DS1: Overall coordination and management. DS2-6: Activity Cores, sub- divided into 21 coherent Design Study Tasks (DSx-Ty) DS 7-8: “Synthesizing” the results from DS2-6 Structure optimized to continuously map the scientific requirements on the technical specifications to produce a common design goal

6. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 SKADS scope: the entire SKA system Computing intensive Storage intensive Signal intensive Receiving and Collector Concept, Station-level Signal Conditioning and Processing Architecture Wide Area Data transport Network Control and monitor software Data reduction and Imaging Central Processing Distribution, Archiving and Use by astronomer Data intensive SKADS Foci: Blue = Technical R&D work Yellow= Assessment Studies Lightest Yellow= Least emphasized

7. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 SKADS: Based on phased arrays Multiple f-o-v philosophy for flexibility and surveys Aperture Arrays “electronic fish-eye lens” Focal Plane Arrays “radio cameras”

8. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 SKADS Governing Structure SKADS Board Coordinator Project Manager Project Engineer Project Scientist SKADS MT SKADS Coordination Committee DS leaders Part. >2.5%1 repres.(others) SAG Project Office ISPOParticipantsRadionetOthers

9. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 SKADS First Year SKADS Proposal to EC endorsed by ESKAC and Radionet3 March 2004 Contract negotiations on basis DoW and CPF’s1 April 2005 Project officially started 1 July 2005 Contract signed 18 Nov. 2005 Formal Kick-off in Chateau Limelette (Brussels)17-18 November 2005 Advance payment received from the EC @ ASTRON 25 Jan. 2006 First Board meeting 26 Jan. 2006 Chair: Peter Wilkinson (UMAN), Vice-Chair: Franco Mantovani (INAF/IRA) Project Scientist and Project Engineer in office26 Jan. 2006 Draft Consortium Agreement for discussion 25 Jan. 2006 Project Manager in office1 March 2006 Regular meetings:MT 1/wk telecon, 1x/qua, CC 1x/mo 1 April 2006 Preparations for Annual reporting started1 May 2006 Second Board meeting, C.A ready for signing26 June 06 Annual Report to EC 15 Aug.2006 1 SKADS Workshop (Paris)04 Sept. 2006

10. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 The Program SKADS Board Peter Wilkinson, UManChair Franco Montovani, INAF/IRAVice-Chair SKADS-MT Arnold van Ardenne, ASTRONCoordinator Andre van Es, ASTRONProject Manager S. Torchinsky, Obs. de ParisProject Scientist A. Faulkner, UManProject Engineer SKADS Project Office Truus van den Brink Office Manager Bastiaan van HolstProject Planner Janneke Wubs, Arno GregoorFinancial Control The Work 8 DS leaders, 21 DS-T leaders (some the same), close to 60 people working on SKADS in the first year

11. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 SKADS Activities First Year finishing and agreeing the DOW with all participants, successfully finishing the contract negations to the EC setting up the project management and control organization including the appointment of the project manager, scientist and engineer to start the project and line-up/synchronize the activities in all tasks according to the DOW to get agreement on the Consortium Agreement and the associated agreement on the Pre-Existing Know How. to properly set up the internal and external communication representation and documented reporting to set up webpages as project communication and progress tool to finish first Annual report Other activities: –to formalize closer connections from SKADS to the International SKA project recognizing that SKADS is the major endeavour on the SKA context –to increase the inflow of (new) scientific insights into SKADS –to absorb developments in the SKA context in as far as relevant to SKADS –to optimize the representation of other European countries and SKA (related) activities in the US and elsewhere

12. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 Achievements so far Implementation of PM tools SKADS management complete SKADS Project Office complete All scientific and technical DS-activities started Recruitment process started First results dripping in, see Agenda Improved connection to ISPO & SKA Improved Science input through Science Advisory Group (“SAG”) Clear reference for SKADS through “SKADS Benchmark as Reference Design”

13. SKADS1WorkshopAvA04092006 Agenda SKADS Workshop 2006 – 4 September 2006 10.00WelcomeDaniel Egret 10.05 IntroductionPeter Wilkinson 10.15SKADS overviewArnold van Ardenne 10.30SKA PerspectiveRichard Schillizzi 10.50Engineering overviewAndrew Faulkner 11.05Science OverviewSteve Torchinsky 11.30Science and Astronomical Simulations DS2Mike Garrett Science Simulations DS2-T1Steve Rawlings Astronomical Data Simulations DS2-T2Cormac Reynolds 12.15The Network and its Output Data DS3Paul Alexander Architecture & Network Simulator DS3-T3Paul Alexander Network infrastructure & Data Trans. DS3-T1Simon Garrington Data Handling, Control & Distributed Computing DS3-T2Kjeld van der Schaaf 13.00Lunch 14.00Large EC projectsElena Righi-Steele 14.20Tech. Foundations & Enabling Technologies DS4Andrew Faulkner Front End technologies DS4-T1Mo Missous Digitisation & RFI mitigation DS4-T2 & 3Pierre Colom Wideband integrated antennas DS4-T4Jan Geralt bij de Vaate Beamforming techniques DS4-T5 Michael Jones 15.20EMBRACE DS5Parbhu Patel Development of EMBRACE as a system DS5-T2Dion Kant 16.00Coffee 16.15BEST DS6Stelio Montebugnoli 16.45Next 18 monthsAndré van Es 17.00Conclusion and QuestionsArnold van Ardenne 17.15 Close