Robert Schaefer

Radio Array of Portable Interferometric Detectors (RAPID): Development of a deployable multiple application radio array

The Radio Array of Portable Interferometric Detectors (RAPID) is an advanced radio designed for multi-role applications. The system implements a spatially diverse sparse array technology and can be deployed and reconfigured easily. Data are captured at the raw voltage level using the system in the field and processed post-experiment. Signal processing for the system is software defined and uses a scalable Cloud computing architecture. The system builds upon the Square Kilometer Array Low Frequency Aperture antenna (SKALA) in combination with custom hardware for data acquisition on a per antenna basis. The instrument uses physically disconnected elements, a high performance direct digitization receiver, hot swap solid state storage, solar and battery power, and wireless control for interconnection. Schedule based operation can also be used in radio quiet locations or to enable minimally attended operation. RAPID is intended for application as both an Astronomical radio telescope and a Geospace imaging radar system. The high degree of mobility a orded by the system enables a wide variety of interferometric configurations and allows deployment of the instrument at locations which are optimal for specific scientific goals.

Radio Array of Portable Interferometric Detectors (RAPID): Design and applications

The Radio Array of Portable Interferometric Detectors (RAPID) is a spatially diverse sparse radio array. It has been designed to be deployed and reconfigured easily for scientific applications. These applications include both geospace and astronomy experiments where a relatively small and sparse aperture is sufficient in size. Examples include the study of ionospheric turbulence using active and passive radar imaging, astronomical observations of galactic synchrotron emission, and localization of bright radio emissions such as those from the Sun and Jupiter. The high degree of mobility afforded by the system enables interferometric configurations that are tailored to specific experiments and can be changed in the field. RAPID can also be deployed to locations that are optimal for specific scientific objectives or that complement other existing facilities by adding baselines or serving as a separate imaging receiver array.

Don't Mourn, Organize

This column is a roundabout way of asking, if it is possible to improve the working conditions of software engineers beyond what we have today. I don’t mean trivialities such as free coffee, or a bring your pet to work day, or even a foosball table, I mean something more relevant to actual software development. The software industry remains far from being an engineering profession as it ever has, though arguably better than it was in 1969 when the term “software engineering” was coined.

Passive radar interferometry of meteor trails

We discuss the development of single site passive radar interferometry for the RAPID (Radio Array of Portable Interferometric Detectors) project and its application to the detection of meteor trails. We utilize antennas developed for the low frequency portion of the square kilometer array (SKALA) which are zenith pointing and cover the FM band.

Patterns of information management by Mandy Chessell and Harald Smith

Intended for enterprise architects, information architects, and solution architects, Patterns of Information Management introduces pattern languages, their structure and relevance to information management. Built around the supply chain metaphor Patterns of Information Management identifies patterns associated with distributed information systems, specifically patterns used in the reengineering of a fictional firm used both as baseline and case study. This generic firm is a company and a store (bricks and clicks) with the all too familiar problem of information islands and information replication. Through the use of patterns this firm undergoes an information architecture makeover. This reviewer must caution that Patterns of Information Management should not be used as the sole reference to performing an information systems makeover. Though this book does aid the analyst on pattern aspects through its numerous examples, this book fails the information analyst on a number of significant issues that raise the risk of failure. First, patterns of business governance are not addressed. How can one provide an adequate (not to say efficient) information system without knowing the business rules? Second, patterns of implementation are not addressed – there are no patterns for entity-relationship diagrams, no patterns for database design, no patterns for client-server architectures-nothing to bridge the gap between concept and implementation. Third, the firms culture is viewed from the top down only (perhaps part of a rationale in line with avoiding issues of governance – to not provide any opportunity to raise uncomfortable questions), and last, the absence of patterns for retraining employees in using a newly madeover information architecture. Patterns of Information Management describes an ideal untouched by pragmatics – something that should be recognized by the older generation of corporate rat-racers as Business Process Reengineering (BPR), a style of business rearchitecting championed (and later disowned) by Michael Hammer in the 1990s

Managing the unmanageable: rules, tools, and insights for managing software people and teams by Micky W. Mantle and Ron Lichty

Two software industry veterans with over 70 years of combined experience have written a book that will help any software manager be more successful. Having spent their careers developing software, leading software development projects, and managing programmers and teams, they have now distilled their experience into a book that every beginning programming manager should read and have on their bookshelves for reference.