Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project
Tuesday 14 th August
Wellington

John Houlker, NZTE
SKA project update
(Jonathan Kings, MBIE)
PEP work packages
(Michelle Storey, CSIRO)
Australian PEP funding
(David Luchetti, DIISRTE)
NZ perspective
(Howard Markland - MBIE)
Engagement opportunities
(Melanie Johnston-Hollitt
– VUW)
Question & answer session
Duration: 09:00 – 12:00

Jonathan Kings, MBIE
NZ Project Director

9 SKA Organisation members
(New Zealand, Australia, S.
Africa, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, China, Canada, Sweden)
Bid evaluation process

• Shared infrastructure
– Australia gets low-frequency aperture array & survey telescope (extended ASKAP)
– S. Africa gets mid-frequency infrastructure
• Best available outcome for A-NZ bid
• Effectively a 50:50 split for Phase I
(by value)
• No plan for infrastructure in New Zealand

Pre-construction Phase underway
• Detailed planning & engineering design
• €90 million budget
• Led by SKA Project Office
(Manchester)
• Funded by participating consortia
SKA Project Office
• Project Execution Plan (PEP)
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Developing policies
– industry engagement
– procurement
– intellectual property

Michelle Storey, CSIRO

SKA pre-construction briefings
6-14 August 2012
CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) being developed by SKA
Office with substantial input from the international community.
• Draft released to research partners May 2012.
• SKA Office now working on a new version of the WBS, to incorporate results of the site selection
• Possible that workpackages will stay the same, though their internal structure might be different
• Stage 1 to take system to system requirements review
• WBS for Stage 2 will be developed during/after Stage 1
• Stage 2 to reach construction-ready contracts

• Five workpackages led by the SKA Office
– Science
– Project Management
– System engineering to System Requirements Review
– Power
– Site and infrastructure
• There may be some direct contracts available
• Integrated Task Teams will be established for crosscutting areas
Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 12

Workpackage
Dishes
Low Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA)
Signal and Data Transport (SaDT)
Central Signal Processor (CSP)
Science Data Processor (SDP)
Telescope Manager (TM)
Synchronisation and Timing (SaT)
Power
Site and Infrastructure
Mid Frequency Aperture Array (MFAA)
Phased Array Feed (PAF)
Wide Band Single Pixel Feed (WBSPF)
 Note that Site and Infrastructure and Power may be led by the SKA Office
Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 13

CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

The work package (preconstruction) covers all of the tasks necessary to plan for the development, construction, delivery and operation of the Dish Arrays for SKA1 on both
SKA sites (SA and AUS), including.
• Dishes
• Structure - Pedestal, reflector, mount, …
• Performance Verification/Qualification
• Operations - Support, maintenance, logistics
• Octave Band Single Pixel Feed (OBSPF)
• Feed – Cryostat, Low Noise Amplifiers, …
• Receiver - Amplification, signal transport, digitisation, …
• Elements of the Advanced Instrumentation Program (AIP)
• Phased Array Feed (PAF) – Feed, receiver and signal processing
• Wide Band Single Pixel Feed (WBSPF) – Feed, receiver and signal processing
Stage 1 work to input to systems requirements review

Australia
Consortium Management
Phased Array Feed (PAF) and associated dish optics
Receivers – Single pixel and PAF
South Africa
System Engineering
Single Pixel Feeds (SPF)
Dish – Optics, mechanical
Canada
China
Phased Array Feed (PAF)
Receivers – PAF
Dish – Composite reflectors
Dish – Optics, mechanical design
Wide Band Single Pixel receivers (WBSPF)
Dish
Wide Band Single Pixel receivers (WBSPF)
Sweden

• CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

Covers development requirements and design of SKA1-low at Australian site
70 -<= 450 MHz located entirely in Australia
All-electronic telescope
• No moving parts. Functionality defined by ICT capability (investment)
Stage 1 PEP involves:
• Development and verification work in lead-up to System Requirements Review
• Performance and cost trade-offs via advanced system modelling
• Strong interactions with pathfinder (LOFAR, ...) and precursor (MWA) telescopes
• Science input to SKA System Engineering process
• Planning of Stage 2
Consortium is likely to be led by ASTRON, NL
• Current partners include ICRAR, INAF, UK (Camb, Oxf, Man) + 5 others
(Australian Inputs coordinated via ICRAR)

CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

20
• SDP responsible for turning output of beamformers and correlators into final science products i.e. images, cubes, catalogs
• Challenges
•
Highly dependent on Concept of Operations
•
Very tightly coupled to Telescope Manager
•
Vast data flow
•
High Performance Computing vital (10s Petaflops to 10s Exaflops)
•
Power consumption for HPC Algorithms for calibrating and imaging not yet sufficiently scalable
•
Three different telescope designs, two different sites, globally data distribution to regional centers and end-users.
• High risk work package
•
Coupling to Telescope Manager
•
Scales of data, processing, complexity very high

•
Most likely consortium is led by U Cambridge, UK
• Australia: CSIRO, ICRAR, U Melbourne
• NZ: TBD
• Others
•
South Africa: SKA team
•
UK: UCambridge, OERC, STFC (Daresbury), UManchester
•
Netherlands: ASTRON (Dome project, IBM)
•
Spain: IAA
•
Canada: CADC/cyberSKA
•
Germany: MPIfR
• Discussions with industry partners: IBM, Intel, CISCO
•
Consortium policy under review
• Good coverage of required capabilities
• Some weakness on operational aspects of large scale facilities
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We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site.
CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science
CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

David Luchetti (DIISRTE, Australia)

• PEP business plan draw on various resources
• SKA Office to lead several work-packages - funded through a central fund
• Other work-packages to be allocated to consortia partly funded by member governments directly
• Likely consortia already forming – significant global interest
• Opportunities for new entrants
– Linking to existing consortia a good option

• Conventional contracting likely to be limited
• R&D partnership the main opportunity
• SKA may be a watching brief for some - with specific contracting opportunities several years away
• R&D partnership – why?:
– Positioning for downstream supply opportunities
– Building expertise/capability
– Reputational benefits

• Support the SKA project
• Support take up of Australian IP & expertise
• Co-investment
(not fully-funded participation)
• In-kind co-investment OK

Co-Investment Funding – Program Structure
• Components for Major & Minor consortia partners
• Major partner component focussed on high priority work-packages
• DIISRTE will ‘pre-qualify’ organisations for SKA RfP
• Winners funded directly by DIISRTE – accountable for their contribution to a work-package
• Co-investment funds to leverage partnering opportunities

Co-investment Funding – Partnering facilitation
• Consortia struggling to use earlier EoI information
• Strategic, targeted EoI process to cut through to consortia lead organisations

Co-investment Funding – Funds distribution
STAGE ONE – 2012-2013
Funding
Major participant:15% of funding
Minor participant: 5% of funding
Number of Grants (Approx.)
Major participant: 2-3 grants
Minor participant: 8-12 grants
Value of Grants (Approx.)
Major participant: $0.5-1 million
Minor participant: $100K
STAGE TWO – 2014-2016
Funding
Major participant: 60% of funding
Minor participant: 20% of funding
Number of Grants (Approx.)
Major participant: 2-3 grants
Minor participant: 8-12 grants
Value of Grants (Approx.)
Major Participant: $3-7 million
Minor participant: $250K to $500K

Howard Markland - MBIE

• New Zealand’s pledge:
– NZ$1.6 million (~10% of Australia’s commitment)
– dedicated to the 3-year Pre-construction Phase
– in-kind contribution
• Purpose of funding is to support:
– the SKA project
– capability & participation of NZ science & industry
– A-NZ reputation

• Under Development
– mechanism, criteria, responsibilities etc.
– will not be inconsistent with the Australian model
(see ‘Minor Participant’ category)
• Process will be:
– appropriate for the funding available
– transparent, inclusive & defensible
– subject to technical peer review
– consistent with ANZSCC objectives

• Basic requirements:
– relevant & internationally acknowledged capability
– sufficient resource to ‘deliver’
– able to meet co-funding obligations ($ or in kind)
• Engagement process:
– link to an established consortium
– satisfy pre-qualification requirements
– monitor opportunities
– apply for funding

John Houlker (NZ Trade & Enterprise)

Goal to secure opportunities for New Zealand science and industry to participate and build capability in the development of the leading-edge technology the SKA requires.
• Help build New Zealand science and industry collaboration (initial step SDP-NZ)
• Access to networks of high-technology research and development groups
• Leverage SKA Industry Cluster connections
• Capability building and investment prospects

• Connection opportunities with major hightechnology Multi-National Corporations
– MNCs seeking to be “Primes” and lead technology developers
– Build IP relationships, paths to market, capability & maturity in engagement with MNCs.
• Pilot project technology development and testing possibilities.

Melanie Johnston-Hollitt – VUW

Murchison Wide Field
Array (full partner -
VUW lead institution)
ASKAP surveys (VUW,
UoC, AUT)

• Placeholder group ‘NZ-SDP’ joined Cambridge-led consortium for the SDP WP:
– Administrative lead – John Houler , Science and Industry leads Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, Dougal Watt
– Gave likley initial interest to Cambridge
– Consulted community, requested EoI ’s from community
– Auckland, AUT + Massey + Otago, VUW + IRL + IBM
– National EoI to be submitted to Cambridge / ANZSCC
– Pre-qualification/ peer review step required for funding
• MBIE to clarify process from here
• No funding support at present, limited funding support going forward.

• Immediate next steps ‘NZ-SDP’ national EoI to be finalised – still chance to get involved.
– Current submissions were around cloud computing, data pipeline and algorithm development.
– Strong interest to use MWA involvement at platform for SDP verification (real time imaging and calibration, pipelines, algorithms), hybrid correlators and low frequency science.

• Lots of moving parts:
– changing work-packages
– evolving work-package consortia
– SDP-NZ interest in Cambridge University consortium
– A-NZ collaboration arrangement
– A & NZ pre-qualification & funding arrangements
– SKA Organisation policies
– MED & MSI amalgamation (MBIE)………….etc.
• There will be opportunities for NZ engagement
• Limited funding support
• No free lunch
Stay engaged to follow developments

NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA
Science
NZ SKA Research & Development Consortium
Melanie Johnston-Hollitt (Victoria University of Wellington)
Tel: +64 4 463 6543 Email: Melanie.Johnston-Hollitt@vuw.ac.nz
Industry
NZ SKA Industry Consortium
John Houlker (NZ Trade & Enterprise)
Tel: +64 4 816 8216 Email: John.Houlker@nzte.govt.nz
Government
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
Howard Markland
Tel: 64 4 474 2981 Email: Howard.Markland @med.govt.nz www.med.govt.nz anzSKA website: www.ska.govt.nz
Science
CSIRO
Dr Carole Jackson
Tel: +61 2 9372 4407 Email: Carole.Jackson@csiro.au www.csiro.au
Industry
Australasian SKA Industry Consortium
John Humphreys
Tel: +61 7 5474 5164 Email: johnh@globalinnovation.com.au www.askaic.com
Government
Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research & Technology
Mike Bryson
Tel: +61 2 6276 1120 Email: michael.bryson@innovation.gov.au www.innovation.gov.au
anzSKA website: www.ska.gov.au
SKA Organisation website: www.skatelescope.org