Komal Kaur Rose Hills
EIGSEP Antenna Position
This radio astronomy project seeks to measure the 21-cm signal that comes from hydrogen clouds near the beginning of the universe, which can be measured in radio frequencies. The global signal measurement could inform us about specific periods of the universe like the Epoch of Reionization, characterized by the first stars “turning on”.
The EIGSEP project approaches the problem by taking measurements from a radio antenna suspended across Marjum Canyon in Utah. This is done to improve accuracy and quality of measurements in the field to yield more accurate and rich results due to being electromagnetically isolated.
My goal within EIGSEP is to write and run machine learning algorithms to find the position of the antenna within the canyon. With this, the EIGSEP team can create calibrations of the antenna’s measurements to better understand the data. This will allow next steps across the EIGSEP project to be more reliable for science.
Message To Sponsor
I want to sincerely thank you for supporting this work. This project provides us with a way to understand our place in the universe and how the universe as we know it came to be. This work also supports innovation in scientific methods and applications of knowledge across different fields of STEM.