ASTAC

ASTAC Members

  • Christophe Pinte, Monash (Chair)
  • Aaron Ludlow, UWA
  • Thomas Nordlander, ANU
  • Aditi Vijayan, ANU

Ex-officios

  • Pawsey Representative and User Consultant – Chris Harris
  • Swinburne Representative and User Consultant – Jarrod Hurley
  • NCI Representative and User Consultant – vacant

Additional Support

  • Technical Secretary (ADACS) – Eman Ali
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Call for Proposals: ASTAC Large Program

This call for supercomputing time proposals will include 14M CPU hours on NCI Gadi, with resources available from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. Specifically, the time is intended to be awarded in relatively large allocations running large-scale parallel computations. This is to support projects that could not be carried out using the smaller amounts of time available via previous ASTAC calls, hence the minimum request for this call will be 2M CPU hours, and all projects that are awarded time are expected to be able to use at least 192 cores (4 Gadi nodes) in parallel.

Researchers affiliated with an institute in Australia are eligible to apply. Early Career Researchers, including postdocs and students, are especially encouraged to apply.

Applications close on Friday 5 April 2024, 11pm AWST. Late applications will not be accepted.

Please click here for more information on how to apply. 

AAL’s Astronomy Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee (ASTAC) allocates available time on the following supercomputer resources for dedicated national astronomy access:

  • OzSTAR, Swinburne University Supercomputer
  • NCI Gadi, NCI National Facility

AAL will also consider ASTAC allocating time on other supercomputer resources that have dedicated national astronomy access, where appropriate.

There are usually two calls for proposals per year, announced in May and November, and closing in June and December. Please refer to ASTAC’s allocation principles.

Terms of reference

Members of ASTAC are appointed by the AAL Board via an application process (organised by AAL) and are installed for a two-year fixed term, with the possibility of renewal. In addition:

  • AAL is responsible for appointing Chair and Deputy Chair positions on the committee. The Chair position is typically a one year term, reporting to the AAL board.
  • AAL aims for institutional, geographical, career stage and gender diversity across its advisory committees.

ASTAC is formed by Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL) and the ASTAC process is managed by Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS).