Astronomy @ Curtin
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Teaching...
o you wonder about our place in the universe?
Would you like to find out how stars really work or learn about the wonderfully
bizarre features of our local or not so local planets? Do you imagine wrestling
with the complexity of the space-time continuum? If so, then you can make
an excellent start by enrolling in the Astronomy degree through the Department
of Imaging and Applied Physics at Curtin University.
Research...
The astronomy group at Curtin concentrates its research effort into a range of projects in the area of radio astronomy, including aspects of next generation telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array and the Murchison Widefield Array. The group are heavy users of Australia Telescope National Facility instruments such as Parkes and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, for projects including Very Long Baseline Interferometry, studies of active galactic nuclei and radio galaxies, transient radio phenomena, and pulsars. Undergraduate and postgraduate (Masters and PhD) projects are available in a wide variety of radio astronomy research areas. The group maintains a 20 node (dual-processor, quad-core machines = 160 core) parallel computer dedicated to data processing, with approximately 100 TB of data storage space.
Engineering...
Curtin activities in radio astronomy have a strong engineering component, including the design and prototyping of new instrumentation for antennas and in digital signal processing. The group are currently establishing a fully equipped radio astronomy engineering laboratory that will be used for engineering research that feeds into the research and teaching programs. Strong links between the teaching, research and engineering aspects of radio astronomy ensure that undergraduate and postgraduate students are fully exposed to all aspects of modern radio astronomy.
