CosmicAI Fellow (5015)

Position Description:

Position Summary

The newly established National Science Foundation (NSF)-Simons CosmicAI Institute seeks to hire two postdoctoral fellows to help initiate a new comprehensive research program to foster foundational advancements in AI through the analysis and processing of astronomical data at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), located on the grounds of the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virginia. This work will be carried out in close collaboration with CosmicAI team members at the University of Utah. Data volumes for interferometric facilities will increase by over two orders of magnitude in the coming decade with instruments such as the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) on Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). CosmicAI research efforts at NRAO will be focused on expediting the calibration, imaging, and analysis of this high-dimensional data. Although stationed at NRAO, CosmicAI fellows will have full access to Institute facilities and equipment (e.g., world-class computational resources at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, including Vista, a newly instantiated 600 GPU node cluster) and routinely collaborate with Institute members across all sites to facilitate the development of cutting-edge AI tools and methodologies.

The NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins (CosmicAI) aims to grow transformative AI advances with the overarching goal to increase the accessibility of astronomy data and knowledge for researchers, students, and the public. CosmicAI leverages partnerships between academia (UT Austin, U. of Virginia, U. of Utah, UCLA), national facilities (NRAO and NSF NOIRLab), nonprofits, and industry to develop capabilities that enable astronomical researchers to conceptualize, define, and execute research projects via trustworthy, efficient, robust, and explainable AI methods. By building next-generation AI tools, the Institute aims to accelerate discoveries related to the most basic human question: Where do we come from?

NRAO is a diverse research and development organization that plays a vital role in the study of the universe. The Observatory operates a variety of radio telescopes that span the globe, including the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) across North America, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. These telescopes are among the most advanced in the world, allowing astronomers to explore the universe in unprecedented detail.

CosmicAI fellows at NRAO will be expected to spend 50% of their time on Institute related research efforts, with the remaining 50% available for independent research; ideally there will be substantial overlap between the two. The CosmicAI Fellowship appointment will be awarded initially for a two-year period that is renewable for a third year. Institute directed research will focus on two main areas:

Anomaly Detection for Data Calibration

• Developing a methodology and toolset to distinguish good calibrations from problematic calibrations that currently require human evaluation to expedite high-volume, high-throughput calibration and imaging.

Hyperspectral Cube Image Segmentation:

• Developing  robust, automated data segmentation for spatio-kinematic regions of interest in hyperspectral image cubes  and leveraging to improve the efficiency of creating compact science-ready data products in imaging pipelines.

As a CosmicAI fellow at NRAO you will play a leading role in this groundbreaking research, contributing to either or both areas depending on your interest and expertise.

Work Environment

Work is mission driven, team oriented and typically performed in an office setting within a research or development environment.

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