AAL would like to congratulate the team at Swinburne, including the Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) team, on the release of their new Symptom Tracker at beatcovid19now.org. Swinburne’s Prof. Richard Osborne, an expert in global health and epidemiology, worked with astronomers Prof. Matthew Bailes and Prof. Karl Glazebrook (and their teams) to develop the Symptom Tracker – a system that allows users to log their health via a set of survey questions, and may help track the spread of COVID-19. Prof. Bailes also engaged technical expertise from the NCRIS-funded ADACS team (based at Swinburne), as well as industry partners to scale the product for public release.
 
The Symptom Tracker operates by means of a seven-minute online survey, accessible via a public website, beatcovid19now.org. Questions relate to the health of the user completing the survey and any symptoms they may be experiencing. Based on the answers given, the Symptom Tracker will then provide the user with an overview of their current symptoms. Users can participate in the survey only once or can choose to continue monitoring their health every day to observe any changes that may occur. A user does not need to have symptoms to participate, as the information they provide will be used to help health authorities understand more about COVID-19.
 
Privacy is respected by the Symptom Tracker, as participants are not asked to provide any information that could be used to identify them. Once data begins to flow through the system, additional technical expertise may be required, and AAL has (of course) supported the plan for the use of ongoing resources from the ADACS team. These data sets will then be used by health authorities and medical researchers to understand more about COVID-19 and pandemics in general.
 
The Symptom Tracker is now live. Please visit beatcovid19now.org to learn more and to read some important information about the Symptom Tracker (it does not diagnose COVID-19, nor does it provide medical advice – see the website for more detail).
 
The AAL Program Manager for ADACS is Dr Rob Shen.
Email: robert.shen@astronomyaustralia.org.au

​Given ongoing developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, ESO has postponed the proposal submission deadline for Period 106 from 26 March to 23 April 12:00 CEST (8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, 6pm Australian Western Standard Time).
 
Furthermore, to minimise the risk of infection the presence of staff has been significantly reduced at the La Silla Paranal Observatory over the past week leading to a number of restrictions to the ongoing science operation. As a consequence science operation will cease at all ESO observatory sites from 23 March 2020 until further notice.

Please go to the P106 Call for Proposals web page for more information on how to apply. More information can be found for Australian applicants on AAL’s Australian ESO Forum. Applicants who seek advice on proposal or observing strategies, optimal choice of instrument, etc. are invited to contact AAL’s ESO Program Manager, Stuart Ryder: 
​Stuart.Ryder@astronomyaustralia.org.au.

In line with recent advice regarding the COVID-19 virus, AAL has joined the thousands of other businesses across the country who have encouraged their staff to trial working remotely, in  preparation for possible future closures of workplaces and/or schools and universities.

As a result, staff from the Melbourne and Sydney offices of AAL have been working from home for the last few businesses days. It has proved to be a successful arrangement, and moving forward there may be times when both offices are not staffed and unable to be physically open during regular business hours.

Despite this, AAL would like to assure all our members that both AAL offices will remain open online and staff will be available as usual via email, zoom, skype, etc, or mobile phone. As the both offices will not always be physically staffed, however, AAL would like to advise that calls made to office landlines may not be answered and voicemails may not be actioned in a timely manner. We encourage all communication to be made via online portals or mobile phone if appropriate.

AAL would like to thank everyone for their understanding and patience during this difficult period, and we hope to be back in our offices as soon as possible.

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth will soon get a huge data processing boost from a new 78-node cluster to be provided by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

The new cluster will provide astronomers with a dedicated system to process over 30 petabytes (PB) of data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The cluster will also deliver enhanced GPU capabilities to power AI, computational work, machine learning workflows and data analytics.

Up until now, MWA and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) have been supported by the existing Pawsey supercomputer, Galaxy. According to Pawsey Executive Director, Mark Stickells, this vital upgrade will allow Pawsey to keep up with increased demand for data processing and deliver a service tailored to Australian astronomers. 

"Procurement of the new MWA cluster was the result of a thorough consultation process with key stakeholders and will provide the best system possible to respond to the specific needs of MWA telescope users," he said.

At AAL, we are delighted by the new opportunities this upgrade will provide to Australian astronomers. 

​Commissioning of the new MWA cluster system is expected to be finalised by the second half of 2020.

Please click here to read more about the upgrade from Pawsey.

AAL was delighted to attend the 2nd ESO-Australia joint conference (ESOz-2020), held this year in Perth over five days from the 17th to the 21st of February, 2020. 

The conference brought together 120 researchers from Australia and around the world to discuss a variety of topics, ranging from instruments and surveys to simulations, with research spanning from the Milky Way and nearby galaxies all the way to the Epoch of Reionisation. 

​The success of this series of Australia-ESO joint conferences not only promotes new collaborations in the astronomy community but also showcases the benefit of the ESO-Australia Strategic Partnership.
 
See here for the full story by Claudia Lagos from UWA.