CASPER 2012 Annual Meeting

2012 CASPER WORKSHOP

August 13-17, 2012

The 2012 annual meeting of CASPER will cover a wide range of topics related to FPGA and GPU based instrumentation for astronomy. In addition to talks and presentations on the latest designs, developments and instrumentation from the worldwide CASPER community, the program will also include invited special talks from industry participants, as well as talks relating to the SKA requirements. Hands-on sessions and tutorials on CASPER designs (both FPGA and GPU based) will be conducted to help newcomers to CASPER learn about the basic techniques. These will be supplemented with real-time test runs of simple designs at the Green Bank Telescope. Special tutorial and demo sessions will also be organized with an emphasis on real-time streaming data processing with FPGAs and GPUs. For more information about CASPER, click here

Venue

This year the workshop will be held at the Green Bank site of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, USA. The observatory features a rural setting, with plenty of meeting space and accommodations for students and non-students. We have put together a special package including options for housing and meals.

Registration, lodging and travel

The observatory has arranged for the workshop to use the on-site housing, both the bunkhouses (see picture below) , residence hall rooms, and on-site houses. Off-site lodging options are limited, and are listed below. No transportation can be provided by the conference.

Off-site Lodging Options:

"Shuttle Service to Green Bank"

We are arranging shuttle service to the observatory. If you would like shuttle service, please plan to arrive at Dulles Airport or Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (CHO) between 7:00am and 7:00pm on Sunday, August 12. Similar arrangements will be made for return shuttle service after the workshop. Shuttles will be available on Saturday, August 18, and Sunday, August 19, leaving Green Bank beginning at 6:00am each day. Return flights scheduled on the day of your shuttle should depart Dulles no earlier than 12:00 noon, and CHO no earlier than 11:00am. If other arrangements are needed, please let us know.
Shuttle departure times will be sent to you after we receive your flight information.

Regular Registration

A registration fee of $200.00 will include all lunches, coffee breaks, and transport to/from Dulles International Airport (IAD). Housing is available either in the NRAO Bunkhouses, which feature separate male and female shared quarters, or in Observatory housing, which feature private rooms. The bunkhouse option will cost $50.00 for the week. Private rooms will be available for $400.00 per week. An optional (but highly recommended!) meal plan will include all breakfasts and dinners for $150.00.

Student Registration

A registration fee of $100.00 will include student registration, transport to/from Dulles International Airport (IAD), Bunkhouse lodging, and all meals. Students must include a letter of support from their professor or supervisor to use this option.

Student Travel Support

A limited amount of student travel support will be available. Letters requesting travel support should be directed to casper2012@nrao.edu for consideration, and should include a statement of need, and a letter of endorsement by a sponsoring professor or supervisor.

Call for Papers

The Scientific organizing committee of the CASPER workshop is pleased to provide this call for participation in the 2012 workshop. Both technical developments and science results are needed. This year a special emphasis will be on large-scale systems, such as those required by HERA- or SKA- sized efforts. Abstracts for the following topics are now being accepted at https://science.nrao.edu/php/alma/casper_abs.php:

• Science with CASPER-based instruments
• Large-scale correlator and beamformer architectures
• Digital Instrumentation for Radio Astronomy
• Non-Astronomy Instrumentation applications
• Hardware:
• Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog Converters
• Networking for Signal Processing
• FPGA-based and GPU based computing hardware
• Tools and Development Systems

Each abstract will be reviewed by the Scientific Organizing Committee, and those selected for the program will be given a 20-minute slot for an oral presentation, or a slot in the Poster session, if a poster is desired. Several Invited Papers will be solicited to allow for adequate presentation of larger or complex topics.

Please contact casper2012@nrao.edu if there are any questions.

John Ford

for the SOC