HIRAX Collaboration Meeting 2026 - ETH Zurich

Sep 7, 2026, 12:00 AM → Sep 9, 2026, 8:00 PM UTC

Seminar Room J 43.1 (ETH Zurich)

HIRAX Collaboration Meeting 2026

The HIRAX Collaboration Meeting 2026 aims to bring together the international collaboration working on the Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) for an interactive and collaborative exchange. The meeting will feature presentations of status reports and ongoing research, workshop sessions focused on specific project elements, and opportunities for breakout discussions. The meeting will take place at an exciting stage of the experiment, with many hardware elements coming online and initial data capture likely being underway. Accordingly, the meeting will focus on “The Path to First Scientific Results”, with concrete goals guiding presentations, collaborative sessions, and meeting outcomes. In particular, the meeting will aim to:

• bring the collaboration up to date on the current state of work across the project,

• assess the instrument performance of the deployed array,

• advance analysis of the data currently in hand,

• prepare for the first scientific results, and

• plan further instrument and system deployment, including key subsystems, system integration, data and software orchestration, and calibration strategies.

The event invites the entire international collaboration to attend and contribute, either in person or online. This includes research groups from HIRAX partner institutions, primarily based in Europe, South Africa, and North America. Attendees will include students (master’s level and above), postdoctoral researchers, professors, software developers, engineers, and management staff involved in the HIRAX Collaboration.

The ETH Cosmology Research Group is delighted to welcome you to ETH for the HIRAX Collaboration Meeting 2026!

Registration: Please register here to participate.

Social Dinner: As part of the social program, a dinner is planned for either Monday or Tuesday. If you would like to attend the dinner, please indicate this in the registration form.

Participants have to make their own arrangements for their accommodation (this link may be useful).

Mon, September 7

8:30 AM → 9:00 AM Welcome Coffee

9:00 AM → 10:00 AM HIRAX Overview

9:00 AM Welcome - Alexandre

9:05 AM Project Status - Kavi

9:20 AM Project Management Updates - Solan

9:35 AM Data Sharing and Internal Comm - Vadym, Julian

9:45 AM International Context / Other Telescopes - Mario, Dallas/CHORD Rep.

10:00 AM → 12:30 PM Instrument and Site

10:00 AM Site preparation - Ian, Corrie

10:15 AM Dishes - Corrie, Jennifer

10:30 AM Feed and Signal Chain - Dirk, Werner, Austin, Tony

10:45 AM Site (Network/Fibre/Power) Infrastructure - Ian, Corrie, Solan

11:00 AM Coffee break

11:15 AM F Engine - Vadym

11:30 AM X Engine, Beamforming - Thierry, Andre, Kendrick

11:45 AM SDP - Cosmology, FRB, Pulsar, Site software - Devin, Thierry, Kendrick, Aris/Arun, Neeraj, Julian

12:00 PM RFI Environment and Monitoring - Keshav, Ben L.

12:15 PM Housekeeping - Ben L., Isibabale, Veruschka

12:30 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM → 2:30 PM Operations

2:00 PM Telescope and Site Ops - Tony, Solan

2:30 PM → 3:10 PM Data Transport and Protocol

2:30 PM Data and Software Orchestration Overview - Julian

2:45 PM Data Transport and Storage (SANREN, DIRISA) - Julian + partners representatives?

2:50 PM Compute Facilities (CHPC, CSCS, CA) - Julian + others

3:10 PM → 3:40 PM Coffee Break + Group Photo

Meeting point for the group photo: 15:30 at the HIT entrance.

3:40 PM → 5:25 PM Calibration and Instrument Model

3:40 PM Overview and Coordination - Ajith, Devin, Jennifer

Speaker: Devin Crichton (ETH Zurich)

3:55 PM Metrology - Jennifer

4:10 PM Drone - Morgan, Tasmiya

4:25 PM Transits (Solar/Galactic Plane) - Ajith, Keshav, Tony

4:40 PM Primary Beam Simulations - Jennifer, Aditya, Ben S., Ajith, Sindhu

4:55 PM Cross-Coupling Simulations - Leslie, Manas, Quentin

5:10 PM Redundant Calibration - Bobby, Edwin, Devin, Julian

7:00 PM → 9:00 PM Social Dinner

Tue, September 8

9:00 AM → 10:00 AM Visibility and Sky Simulations

9:00 AM Overview - Devin

9:15 AM Sky Simulations - Pascal

9:30 AM Visibility Simulations - Devin, Marianna

9:45 AM Connecting with Calibration and Commissioning - Jennifer, Devin, Aditya, Tony

10:00 AM → 10:30 AM Coffee Break

10:30 AM → 11:30 AM Analysis

10:30 AM Comissioning and Prototype Analysis - Tony, Devin

10:45 AM Low Level Pipelines - Devin, Ajith

11:00 AM High Level Cosmology Pipelines - Viraj, Chandra, Li, Warren, Pascal

11:15 AM Real-time Pipelines - Kendrick, Arun

11:30 AM → 12:00 PM Theory

11:30 AM Overview - Martin, Amanda

11:45 AM Cross-correlation and Cross-bispectrum Theory - Li, Chandra, Warren, Pascal

12:00 PM → 1:30 PM Lunch

1:30 PM → 2:45 PM Early Science Results and Paper Planning

1:30 PM Cosmology Context, DESI, CHIME Results etc. - some student?

1:45 PM Signal Chain and Science Comissioning Papers - Kavi, Tony + Joint

2:15 PM ning Cosmology (Stacking cross and long-term auto.) - Pascal, Devin + Joint

2:30 PM First Transients Paper - Amanda

2:45 PM → 3:15 PM Coffee Break

3:15 PM → 4:30 PM Next Steps

3:15 PM Deployment - Kavi, Solan + Joint

3:30 PM Analysis - Kavi, Solan + Joint

3:45 PM Scientific Results - Kavi, Solan + Joint

4:00 PM Internal Engagement - Kavi, Solan + Joint

4:15 PM External Engagement, Outreach, Press, ... - Kavi, Solan + Joint

Wed, September 9

8:00 AM → 12:00 PM Voluntary Informal Meetings