Eric Saunders: Maybe one day this will have content

-funroll-loops

Unroll loops whose number of iterations can be determined at compile time or upon entry to the loop. This option makes code larger, and may or may not make it run faster.

--from the gcc manpage

I'm a postdoc working in the field of robotic telescopes. Although physically based at the University of Exeter astrophysics group, I am employed by Las Cumbres Observatory, a non-profit organisation based in Santa Barbara, California that aims to build a large robotic telescope network for astronomy and education. A brief summary of my research and work for LCO can be found here.

My PhD thesis, entitled "Optimal Observing of Astronomical Time Series using Autonomous Agents", was submitted to the University of Exeter in September 2007. I was jointly supervised by Professor Tim Naylor and Dr. Alasdair Allan. See the abstract below for a brief summary. Alternatively, you can experience the full gory details here ( PDF, 3.2MB).

Abstract

"This thesis demonstrates a practical solution to the problem of effective observation of time-varying phenomena using a network of robotic telescopes. The best way to place a limited number of observations to cover the dynamic range of frequencies required by an observer is addressed. An observation distribution geometrically spaced in time is found to minimise aliasing effects arising from sparse sampling, substantially improving signal detection quality. Further, such an optimal distribution may be reordered, as long as the distribution of spacings is preserved, with almost no loss of signal quality. This implies that optimal observing strategies can retain significant flexibility in the face of scheduling constraints, by providing scope for on-the-fly adaptation. An adaptive algorithm is presented that implements such an optimal sampling in an uncertain observing environment. This is incorporated into an autonomous software agent that responds dynamically to changing conditions on a robotic telescope network, without explicit user control. The agent was found to perform well under real-world observing conditions, demonstrating a substantial improvement in data quality for this mode of observing. As an example of an observing programme performed in the classical visitor mode of a non-robotic telescope, a survey of temporal stellar variability in the 13 Myr-old cluster h Persei is described. The inherent problems of such an observing programme are explored. Nevertheless, a significant fraction of the cluster members are found to be variable. Importantly, these variable members are found to lie almost entirely below the radiative-convective gap, suggesting a possible link between the change in energy transport in the stellar core and the topology of the surface magnetic field."