2026 Project Description

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BURSTT development and analysis

Keywords:

FPGA

FRB

pulsar

radio transient

VLBI

Supervisors

Kai-yang Lin, Chao-Te Li, Homin Jiang, Chau-Ching Chiong, Shih-Hao Wang, Daniel Baker
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are a powerful and transient phenomenon that originates in distant galaxies. The burst of energy lasts only milliseconds and often do not repeat. We are building BURSTT, a new type of telescope to efficiently detect and localize the FRBs to their host galaxies in the local universe. Follow-up studies of the host galaxies may offer clues to the nature of these mysterious objects. The FRBs are also useful as a probe of the ionized medium in the host galaxy or in between galaxies. Currently, three of the BURSTT stations are fully operational and more are under construction. In this project, we look for students who are interested in analyzing data obtained from the telescope (pulsar data analysis, solar radio burst, etc.), and to participate in optimization of the front-end (300-800MHz analog components) or back-end (fast digital processing in an RFSoC platform) system.

Required Background

For data analysis projects, experience with Python or C is preferred. Being comfortable with the Linux system is a bonus but not required.