Sample interview questions: Have you contributed to any open-source radio astronomy software projects or libraries?
Sample answer:
- Contributed to the development of the Open Radio Astronomy Telescope (ORAT) software package. ORAT is a powerful software package that provides a complete set of tools for radio astronomy data reduction and analysis. I contributed to the development of the ORAT imaging pipeline, which is used to produce high-quality images from radio astronomy data.
- Developed a new algorithm for radio interferometric imaging. This algorithm is significantly faster than existing algorithms and produces images with improved quality. I have released this algorithm as open-source software, and it has been adopted by several radio astronomy groups around the world.
- Wrote a series of tutorials on radio astronomy data reduction and analysis. These tutorials are designed to help astronomers learn how to use the ORAT software package and other radio astronomy software tools. The tutorials are available online and have been downloaded by thousands of astronomers.
- Gave several presentations on radio astronomy data reduction and analysis at international conferences. These presentations have helped to raise awareness of the ORAT software package and have encouraged other astronomers to use it.
- Served as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Open Source Software. This journal publishes high-quality research papers on open-source software. My role on the editorial board is… Read full answer