Stefan Westerlund

Postdoctoral Fellow in Computational Methodologies

I am a computational scientist working in geophysics. I specialise in using high-performance computing (HPC) resources to efficiently process and analyse large volumes of data, though I also work on implementing, improving, and testing data analysis workflows. In the Deep Earth Imaging Future Science Platform, I am currently using my skills to develop and improve a method for estimating the depth to basement on a continental scale from aeromagnetic data. Previously, my PhD project focused on radio astronomy and identifying sources of emission in large data cubes.

Technical skills

  • Scientific and general computing, including C, C++, Python, and MATLAB.
  • High-performance computing techniques, including OpenMP and MPI, this also includes GPU-accelerated computing and the CUDA and OpenCL platforms.
  • Experience working with geospatial data and analysis, particularly magnetic data.
  • Work with radio astronomy data and analysis.

Professional experience

July 2018 – present
Postdoctoral fellow: CSIRO Deep Earth Imaging Future Science Platform

December 2009 – February 2010
Research Intern: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and iVEC (now the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre) on the potential parallelisation of Radio Astronomy Source Finding algorithms.

Education

PhD in Radio Astronomy from the University of Western Australia, 2016

BEng in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Western Australia, 2010

Selected publications

Stefan Westerlund and Christopher Harris. Performance Analysis of GPU-Accelerated Filter-Based Source Finding for HI spectral line image data. Experimental Astronomy, 39, 1 2015.

Stefan Westerlund and Christopher Harris. A Framework for HI Spectral Source Finding Using Distributed-Memory Supercomputing. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 31, 1 2014

Stefan Westerlund, Christopher Harris, and Tobias Westmeier. Assessing The Accuracy Of Radio Astronomy Source Finding Algorithms. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 29:301–308, February 2012.

Alan R. Duffy, Martin J. Meyer, Lister Staveley-Smith, Maksym Bernyk, Darren J. Croton, Brbel S. Koribalski, Derek Gerstmann, and Stefan Westerlund. Predictions for ASKAP neutral hydrogen surveys. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 426(4):3385–3402, 2012.