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Engineering Working Group (EWG)

System Engineering Task Force

Terms of reference:

• Advise the ISPO and ISSC, via the EWG Chair, on system design aspects of the SKA project, including:
- SKA similarity and differences to other radio telescope projects
- Translation of SKA science requirements to engineering specifications applicable across a range of technology concepts
- The extent to which a software telescope is possible, and the influence of programmable signal processors and High Performance Computing on system design
- The effect of the RFI and tropospheric water vapour environments on SKA system design
- Self-generated interference considerations
- Overall accuracy requirements for local oscillator and/or sampling signals
- Top-level infrastructure implications (e.g. power and communication) flowing from SKA system design

• Function as an impartial commentary and review body for demonstrator and pathfinder projects in the areas such as those listed above.

• Act as a forum for the exchange of ideas between other EWG Task Forces, SKA engineering groups, and between the SKA project and external collaborators (including collaborators from industry and other scientific projects).

• Produce a whitepaper dealing with SKA system design for consideration by the SKA community and by external engineering assessors charged with evaluating the SKA project. The draft whitepaper will be available by December 31 2005, with the final version completed by March 31 2006. The whitepaper will be prepared according to agreed EWG guidelines and will address issues such as:
- Verification of the completeness, and compatibility across SKA sub-systems, of cost and performance descriptors derived by the specialist EWG task forces
- Dependence of the system design on key SKA specifications
- Summarizing the critical enabling technologies identified by the specialist EWG task forces
- Summarizing the major technology risks identified by the specialist task forces
- A first look at overall SKA system reliability and maintainability issues
- Contribution of current and new-generation demonstrators to SKA system design
- Key technologies or techniques to be demonstrated in a large-scale SKA international pathfinder

Members:
- Geoff Bower, University of California, USA
- Jaap Bregman, ASTRON, The Netherlands
- Mike Davis, SETI Institute, USA
- John Dreher, SETI Institute, USA
- Andrew Faulkner, University of Manchester Jodrell Bank Observatory, United Kingdom
- Mark Gatti, NASA, USA
- Andre van Houwelingen, ASTRON, NL
- Thomas Küsel, CSIR, South Africa
- Anita Loots, SKA Project Office, South Africa
- Bill Petrachenko, National Research Council, Canada
- Richard Thompson (chair), Retired (formerly NRAO), USA
- Jack Welch, University of California, USA