News

This year on October 1st, after evaluating 69 applications submitted to the State emeritus scientist competition, the Board of the state emeritus scientists supported the granting of the status of State emeritus scientist to 32 scientists, including Manfred Schneps-Schneppe, the leading researcher of ERI VIRAC. Congratulations!

VIRAC director Dr.sc.ing. Aleksejs Klokovs and VIRAC leading researchers Dr.sc.ing. Romass Pauliks and Dr.habil.sc.ing. Manfreds Šneps-Šnepe from 1-2 October will participate in the conference "Workshop on Microwave Theory and Techniques in Wireless Communications" (MTTW'20). During the conference following reports will be presented: VIRAC radio astronomy center and development of the space industry - Aleksejs Klokovs; Development and production of a universal measuring system for Space Application - Romass Pauliks; Development of coding schemes for reequipment of telescopes RT-16 and RT-32 for space communications - Manfrēds Šneps-Šnepe. Detailed information about the conference here!

From 12 August to 17 August, 2019 in Odessa (Ukraine) an international conference "6th Gamow International Conference in Odessa: "New Trends in Cosmology, Astrophysics and Radioastronomy after Gamow" took place. The project No.1.1.1.1/16/A/213 "Studies of Physical-Chemical Processes of the Interstellar Environment" (ASTRA) scientific supervisor Ivars Šmelds, researcher Vladislavs Bezrukovs and scientific assistant Artis Aberfelds participated in the conference presenting the reports on the results achieved within the framework of the project "Observations of Molecular Radio Lines"'. Gamow International Conference is an event held every 6 years, since 1994 by the Odessa I.I.Mechnikov National University (Theoretical Physics and Astronomy Department) and it is dedicated to the memory of the prominent astrophysicist and cosmologist G. Gamow. In addition, a summer school dedicated to this scientist takes place in Odessa every August - essentially a scaled-down version of this big conference which is mainly attended by the younger generation of space researchers - students, doctoral students and recent doctoral study graduates. With each passing time the Gamow Conference is becoming more and more respectable and widely attended, not only by participants from Ukraine and Eastern Europe. This year the conference was attended by 125 participants, some of whom also came from countries such as Israel, Poland, Germany - a total of 13 countries. Every day part of the conference took place in plenary sessions, part in sections - Cosmology, Astrophysics with subsection Astroinformatics, Radioastronomy, Solar System and Space Environment, Sun, Solar Activity, Solar-terrestrial Relations and Astrobiology. The scientists of the ASTRA project mainly participated in the work of the section "Radioastronomy" where they also orally presented their reports: Janis Steinbergs, Vladislavs Bezrukovs, Ivar Shmeld, Karina Skirmante, Artis Aberfelds, Mārcis Bleiders, Artūrs Orbidāns, Marcin Gawroński, Roman Feiler “Galactic Maser Observations in VLBI Mode in Ventspils” Artis Aberfelds, Ivar Shmeld “Two Year Results of Methanol Maser Monitoring Program by Irbene Radiotelescopes” Ivar Shmeld “Molecules in space as seen from Ventspils”. In addition to working in the radio astronomy section the conference participants attended plenary sessions and other conference sections which provided with an opportunity to learn about the latest developments in astrophysics, including spectral line research and signal processing and calibration techniques which will be useful in the next stages of the project, as well as in future for improving the Irbene radio telescope signal recording subsystems. Talks with radio astronomy scientists also took place during the conference. The findings of the informal talks will be useful in solving problems related to the methodology of space maser observations at the Irbene Observatory. Of particular note is the meeting with Valerii Shulga, a member of the Scientific Council of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAS) and Oleg Ulyanov head of the Decameter Radio Astronomy Department at the NAS Kharkiv Institute of Radio Astronomy during which opportunities to expand cooperation between Ventspils University of Applied Sciences and Ukrainian scientists were discussed.

ERI VIRAC representatives, Romass Pauliks and Dāvids Egle, took the stage at the Space Industry Day at the National Library of Latvia on March 20, 2019, in order to present overall information about Engineering Research Institute “Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre” (ERI VIRAC) of Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VUAS). Romass and Dāvids stated clear vision of ERI VIRAC, while also providing valuable insight on the background of the entity, key technologies, and competencies. 

Valuable experience, interesting activities, and collegial cooperation! Gints and Dāvids – competent, intelligent, and inquisitive specialists of Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC) exchanged their daily routine and duties to gain valuable experience in training course that took place in Vilnius, Lithuania in order to improve their knowledge and develop electronics testing services in Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VUAS). One of the main goals was to acquire knowledge about how exactly VUAS scientific institute VIRAC would be able to develop and establish successful cooperation with this industry, therefore, providing their knowledge and competence in producing traders’ products. Such cooperation is not only significant for the trader, which is able to acquire valuable guidance and knowledge, but also for VUAS, because such cooperation allows having a better insight about market dynamics, techniques, and situations that can cause problems in national economy. In the year 2018 from November 6 until November 7, VIRAC specialists Dāvids Egle and Gints Dreifogels learned different skills such as perform accurate and correct measurements, acquired knowledge of testing methodology, and communicated with customers in order to develop their knowledge in providing testing services, etc. The training course was implemented within the framework of the following project – “Laboratory network for testing, characterisation and conformity assessment of electronic products developed by SMEs”, in short also “TEST-4-SME” (project Nr #R040). The project is co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the framework of The Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme.