Aus-VO Summer School 2008 - First Announcement

[Tara Murphy]

                      FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
                  The 2nd Aus-VO Summer School
    Computational skills and techniques for modern astronomy

                School of Physics / School of IT
                    The University of Sydney
    		    March 26th - 28th 2008


Following the success of the inaugural Aus-VO Summer School in 2007
we are pleased to announce that it will run again in 2008.

Computational techniques are becoming increasingly important in
astronomy. In order to support the development of such techniques
in our current and future generation of astronomers, we are hosting
a Summer School that will provide an introduction to a selection of
common tools and techniques that we believe can facilitate and enhance
research productivity. The Summer School will consist of lectures and
practical exercises. All exercises will be tailored specifically to
astronomy applications.

The intended audience is postgraduate students and other interested
astronomers. We also encourage honours students to attend.
This is a great opportunity to develop or update your IT skills!
Topics include:

        * Introduction to programming in Python
        * Scientific Python
        * Advanced Unix skills - scripting, regular expressions
        * Version control with Subversion
        * Writing CGI scripts
        * Querying databases with SQL
        * Creating databases with MySQL
        * Introduction to XML and web services
        * Doing science with the Virtual Observatory

If there is enough demand, we will run advanced topics for people 
attending for the second time.

There will be a range of presenters from astronomy and IT, including:

       James Curran          USyd  (School of IT)
       Matthew Graham        Caltech
       Malte Marquarding     ATNF
       Ray Norris            ATNF
       Tara Murphy           USyd  (School of Physics / School of IT)
       Alan Fekete           USyd  (School of IT)
       Andrew Hopkins        USyd  (School of Physics)


Expressions of interest:

     Please send email to tara at physics.usyd.edu.au if you'd like to
     be added to our distribution list and receive subsequent
     announcements.

     Registration will open in January 2008.

     Participants should bring their own laptop to work on. Windows,
     Mac OS and Linux will be supported, and the relevant software will
     be provided for download beforehand.

Important Dates:

     7th December 2007           First Announcement
                                 (expressions of interest)
     January 2008                Registration opens
     February 2008               Registration closes
     26th - 28th March 2008      Aus-VO Summer School


The Local Organising Committee is:

     Tara Murphy        tara at physics.usyd.edu.au
     Andrew Hopkins     ahopkins at physics.usyd.edu.au
     James Curran       james at it.usyd.edu.au
     Anne Green

please contact us if you have any enquiries.

More information is available on the website:
     http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/astrop/ausvoss

This site will be updated as the schedule and other details are
finalised, so keep an eye on it. A second announcement will follow
in the next month with further information.