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Flying WV
West Virginia University Radio Astronomy Instrumentation Laboratory

Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Instruments that listen to the distant universe

RAIL builds telescopes, analog front ends, and digital systems for radio surveys. Our science spans cosmology, fast radio bursts, and pulsars.

Explore our work Meet the lab

69

Publications

4

Places we work

51

Free lessons published

Research and engineering

We build the systems behind wide-field radio telescopes

We follow signals from the antenna feed through the computing systems that turn raw voltages into astronomical measurements.

Hardware

Capture faint signals

Low-noise analog front ends, calibration, clock distribution, and field-ready telescope systems.

Computing

Process the radio sky

FPGA correlators, high-throughput networking, control software, and analysis pipelines.

Discovery

Measure the universe

Cosmology with neutral hydrogen, fast radio burst localization, and pulsar science.

Our collaborators

Recognition RAIL members belong to the CHIME/FRB team. The team received the 2022 Berkeley Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy.

The lab

Who works here

All lab members

Kevin M. Bandura, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Adjunct Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy

kmbandura@mail.wvu.edu

Profile, publications and CV

Publications

Recent papers

All 69 publications

Science education

Teachers build radio telescopes too

DSPIRA stands for Digital Signal Processing in Radio Astronomy. It began as an NSF Research Experiences for Teachers site run by the lab. Partners included the WVU Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology and Green Bank Observatory. Three documented in-person cohorts built working horn radio telescopes in 2017–19. Beginning in 2020, participants concentrated on making the curriculum and collaboration available online.

Two DSPIRA teachers operating a small horn radio telescope in a field at dusk

Free classroom materials

The lessons and community are active

Teachers and lab contributors maintain 51 public lessons covering the astronomy, hardware, signal processing, and labs. The discussion forum and group meetings keep the collaboration open to educators, students, and independent telescope builders.

NSF Award 1611114 provided seed funding. Contributors continue maintaining the collection. Outreach supported by NSF Award 2511256 (2025–2028) carries DSPIRA receivers into a more robust outreach lab.

Partners:

  • WVU Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
  • WVU Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology
  • Green Bank Observatory
Open the lessons About DSPIRA

Join the lab

We take on undergraduate and graduate researchers every year. Write to Prof. Kevin Bandura to talk about joining.

Get in touch