Name: Swiss SKA Days 2025
Start: 2025-08-25T10:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-08-27T15:30:00+02:00
Location: ZHAW - SW Building

Swiss SKA Days 2025

from Monday, August 25, 2025 (10:00 AM) to Wednesday, August 27, 2025 (3:30 PM)

Monday, August 25, 2025

10:00 AM Registration and Welcome Coffee
Registration and Welcome Coffee
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
10:30 AM Opening Session (Day 1)
Opening Session (Day 1)
10:30 AM - 12:55 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

10:30 AM Welcome - Jean-Paul Kneib (EPFL)

10:35 AM Welcome to Swiss SKA Days 2025 from ZHAW - Reto Steiner (ZHAW)

10:50 AM Welcome - Logistical information - Elena Gavagnin (ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences)

11:00 AM SKAO Progress update - Simon Berry (SKAO)

11:20 AM Switzerlands's perspective on the SKA radio-astronomy project - Simon Berger (CH - SERI)

11:30 AM SKACH Communications Update - Tanya Petersen (EPFL)

11:50 AM SKACH 2025-2028 Overview - Carolyn Crichton

12:15 PM Keynote - Learning in low frequency: Charting a path for SKA-Low from LOFAR lessons - Jessica Dempsey (ASTRON)
1:00 PM Lunch (Group photo)
Lunch (Group photo)
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
2:00 PM SKAO Regional Centers (SRCs)
SKAO Regional Centers (SRCs)
2:00 PM - 3:05 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

2:00 PM Updates from SRCNet Project Scientists - Chin-Shin Chang (University of Geneva)

2:20 PM Swiss SRC contributions to SRCNet - Rohini Joshi (FHNW)

2:45 PM SRCNet Infrastructure updates for CHSRC - Carolina Lindqvist (EPFL) Dino Conciatore (ETHZ/CSCS)
3:05 PM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
3:05 PM - 3:35 PM
Room: In front of Auditorium
3:35 PM CTAO-SKAO Synergies
CTAO-SKAO Synergies
3:35 PM - 4:35 PM
Room: SW 401
Contributions

3:35 PM Unveiling the origins of high energy cosmic rays with the SKAO and CTAO - Katharine Mulrey (Astro)

3:55 PM Behind the Firewall: Unseen Synergies in CTAO and SKAO - Victor Holanda (ETHZ/CSCS)

4:15 PM CTAO Off-site ICT - Andrii Neronov (EPFL)
Industry Contributions & Opportunities
Industry Contributions & Opportunities
3:35 PM - 5:05 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

3:35 PM SKAO Procurement Update - Ryan Leadbetter

3:50 PM State-of-the-art Time & Frequency references for SKA-Low & SKA-Mid - Gilles CIBIEL (T4Science)

4:05 PM From raw material to the horn - Lukas Rohr (Mecha AG)

4:20 PM Scaling up the Central Signal Processor - Ivana Novak (Cosylab Switzerland)

4:35 PM Co-design for the SKA Science Data Processor - Hamza Chouh (EPFL)

4:50 PM Progress towards an industrial Rb two-photon clock tailored for scientific applications - Victor Helson (CSEM)
5:05 PM

5:05 PM - 5:10 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)

6:00 PM Welcome Reception
Welcome Reception
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Tuesday, August 26, 2025

8:30 AM Arrival & Coffee
Arrival & Coffee
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
9:00 AM Opening Session (Day 2)
Opening Session (Day 2)
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

9:00 AM A plenary overview of the parallel sessions - Emma Tolley (EPFL)
9:15 AM Dark & Quiet Skies
Dark & Quiet Skies
9:15 AM - 10:55 AM
Room: SW 401
Contributions

9:15 AM Satellite Mega-constellations: The risks for the SKA and a Potential Solution with TABASCAL - Chris Finlay (EPFL)

9:35 AM Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies: an update on our ongoing work for protecting radio astronomy - Susanne Wampfler (Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern)

9:55 AM The renewed IAU Centre for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Sky - Piero Benvenuti (International Astronomical Union CPS)

10:15 AM Satellite software tools for the community - Mike Peel (Imperial College London)

10:35 AM The importance of Dark and Quiet Skies in Swiss Astronomy and the Dialog with the Space Industry - Stephan Hellmich (EPFL)
Data Science & Imaging (Part 1)
Data Science & Imaging (Part 1)
9:15 AM - 10:35 AM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

9:15 AM The R2D2 deep neural network series paradigm for radio-astronomical imaging - Ayoub Tajja (EPFL)

9:35 AM Classification of cluster radio emission with machine learning - Markus Bredberg (EPFL)

9:55 AM Radio Astronomy in the era of Large Models: Specialised Fine-tuning - Erica Lastufka (University of Geneva)

10:15 AM Complex-valued DDRM for Visibility inpainting - Michel Morales (EPFL)
10:55 AM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:55 AM - 11:25 AM
11:25 AM SKACH Science Tools
SKACH Science Tools
11:25 AM - 11:45 AM
Room: SW 401
Contributions

11:25 AM Karabo Community Poll - Chris Finlay (EPFL)
Data Science & Imaging (Part 2)
Data Science & Imaging (Part 2)
11:25 AM - 12:25 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

11:25 AM Separating Point Source Contaminants at the Visibility Level - Shreyam Krishna (EPFL)

11:45 AM Galaxy Clusters on the Road to the SKA: Probing Diffuse Emission with Machine Learning - Swarna Chatterjee (Rhodes University)

12:05 PM Radio Astronomy in the era of Large Models: Can Vision-Language Models Generalize to Unseen Scientific Data? - Mariia Drozdova (University of Geneva) Vitaliy Kinakh (University of Geneva)
11:45 AM Precursor Science
Precursor Science
11:45 AM - 12:25 PM
Room: SW 401
Contributions

11:45 AM The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) - Overview and Status Update - Devin Crichton (ETH Zurich) Jennifer Studer (ETH Zurich)

12:05 PM Primary Beam Chromaticity in HIRAX: Characterization from Simulations and Power Spectrum Implications - Ajith Sampath (University of Geneva)
12:30 PM Lunch
Lunch
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
1:30 PM Karabo Workshop
Karabo Workshop
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

1:30 PM Karabo Update and Tutorial: Radio Interferometry Simulations, Now Including RFI - Chris Finlay (EPFL)
2:30 PM VIRUP
VIRUP
2:30 PM - 2:55 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

2:30 PM Updates on the VIRUP tool - Florian Cabot (EPFL)
2:55 PM CHSRC Workshop
CHSRC Workshop
2:55 PM - 3:55 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

2:55 PM CHSRC workshop - Chin-Shin Chang (University of Geneva) Rohini Joshi (FHNW)
3:55 PM Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
3:55 PM - 4:00 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)

4:00 PM Social Event - Visit of Technorama and Dinner
Social Event - Visit of Technorama and Dinner
4:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Wednesday, August 27, 2025

8:30 AM Arrival & Coffee
Arrival & Coffee
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM

9:00 AM Opening Session (Day 3)
Opening Session (Day 3)
9:00 AM - 9:05 AM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
9:05 AM Astro Science
Astro Science
9:05 AM - 10:35 AM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

9:05 AM A Spin-Glass Formulation for Solar Magnetic Field Disambiguation - Brandon Panos (FHNW)

9:20 AM Extragalactic survey science in deep SKA multi-frequency continuum observations - Mark Sargent (EPFL LASTRO)

9:35 AM Stochastic Star Formation and Its Role in Shaping Cosmic Reionization - Michele Bianco (ETH Zurich)

9:50 AM Spectral studies of MERGHERS cluster sources - Keletso Dichaba (Rhodes University)

10:05 AM Gravitational lensing of FRBs: prospects for probing microlens populations in lensing galaxies - Prasenjit Saha (University of Zurich)

10:20 AM The Science Data Challenge 3b (Inference) results - Davide Piras (University of Geneva) Massimo De Santis (HES-SO)
10:35 AM Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:35 AM - 11:05 AM
11:05 AM Data Science & Simulations
Data Science & Simulations
11:05 AM - 12:20 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)
Contributions

11:05 AM Fast Simulation of Cosmological Neutral Hydrogen based on the Halo Model - Pascal Hitz (ETH Zurich)

11:20 AM Investigating the Birth of Galactic Discs in the PHOEBOS Simulation - Daniel Swingler (UZH)

11:35 AM Connecting galaxy theory and observables using generative deep learning - Philipp Denzel (Centre for Artificial Intelligence, ZHAW)

11:50 AM Advancing cosmological simulations of fuzzy dark matter (FDM) with physics informed neural networks (PINNs) and generative modeling - Ashutosh Kumar Mishra (EPFL)

12:05 PM Tidal Disruption Events with SPH-EXA - Noah Kubli (Universität Zürich)
12:20 PM

12:20 PM - 12:25 PM
Room: SW E11 (Aula)

12:30 PM Lunch - End of conference
Lunch - End of conference
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM