WVU RAIL

West Virginia University ⏦ Radio Astronomy Instrumentation Laboratory

RAIL is a multidisciplinary group within the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at West Virginia University that focuses on Engineering and Science solutions in Radio Astronomy.

Investigations are currently focused on Cosmology, Radio Transient Detectons, Instrumentation and Science Education. RAIL also works in close collaboration with the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology and the Physics and Astronomy Department at WVU

Projects

RAIL is involved in various Astrophysics and Instrumentation projects and collaborations as listed below

CHIME

Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. A novel new radio telescope built at the Dominion Astrophysical Radio Observatory (DRAO) in Penticton, BC. CHIME will map large-scale structure in neutral hydrogen - using “hydrogen intensity-mapping” - to probe Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and, in turn, Dark Energy.

Learn More

ICE System

The 'ICE' hardware and software framework that implements large arrays of interconnected FPGA-based data acquisition, signal processing and networking nodes economically.

Learn More

HIRAX

The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) is a new 400–800 MHz radio interferometer under development for deployment in South Africa. HIRAX will comprise 1024 six meter parabolic dishes on a compact grid and will map most of the southern sky over the course of four years. HIRAX has two primary science goals: to constrain Dark Energy and measure structure at high redshift, and to study radio transients and pulsars. HIRAX will observe unresolved sources of neutral hydrogen via their redshifted 21-cm emission line (‘hydrogen intensity mapping’).

Learn More

Fast Radio Bursts

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are enigmatic signals of uncharacteristic brightness and peculiarly, an extragalactic origin. Our lab is invoved in the development of intrumentation for their detections including but not limited to the CHIME-FRB collaboration and the upcoming HIRAX experiment.

Learn More

Research Experience for Teachers: DSPiRA

Digital Signal Processing in Radio Astronomy (DSPIRA) is an NSF Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science Site at the West Virginia University Lane Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The Principal Investigators are Professors Natalia Schmid and Kevin Bandura. The GBO coordinator is Richard Prestage

Learn More

DSPIRA lessons

An online repository of lesson, activities and guides on Radio AStornomy and Digital Signal Processing made by high school teachers of the DSPIRA program for classrooms.

Go to the Webpage

Faculty

~~~

Dr. Kevin Bandura

Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy

Website:
Click here

Email:
kevin [dot] bandura [at] mail [dot] wvu [dot] edu
Address:
LCSEE
109 Research Way
AERB 237
West Virginia University
Morgantown WV, 26506