I'm currently a PhD student in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Group at the University of Sheffield and member of the GOTO Collaboration.
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I'm an astronomer, and I'm specifically interested in robotic telescopes. My PhD project involves the development of the first robotic GOTO telescope at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma.
The core of the project has been the creation of the GOTO Telescope Control System (G-TeCS), a software package written in Python to control all aspects of the telescope and observatory: hardware interfaces, robotic nightly operation, automatic alert listening, target scheduling and follow-up.
Aside from my work on GOTO I'm also a member of the ULTRACAM/ULTRASPEC/HiPERCAM team, and I've carried out observing runs with all three instruments on the TNT, NTT and GTC.
I'm currently in the 4th and final year of my PhD at the University of Sheffield, before that I did an MPhys in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Durham.
I'm mostly a Python programmer and I've worked with all sorts of different challenges, from serial hardware communications to astronomical scheduling. I love coding and I help run the Sheffield Astronomy coding society CRACK. I've also taken part in a few Hackathons now, including winning a prize at HackSheffield 2017 and runner-up at HackSheffield 2018.
In my spare time I like reading, watching TV and playing PC games, as well as running (or volunteering at) my local 5k Parkrun every Saturday morning. I'm also interested in graphic design and history, in particular heraldry which is a fascinating combination of the two.
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