RUG ATG Pipeline Development team

The RUG ATG Pipeline Development team (RAPiD) develops and maintains scientific algorithmic research software for astronomy.
RAPiD is a joint venture between ATG-Europe and the OmegaCEN Astronomical Science Data Center at the University of Groningen. It is currently a 10 person team all with background in astronomy or other relevant fields and decades long track record in astronomical information technology and research software engineering. The team operates in a globally distributed international team environment with other software developers and scientific staff.

Kapteyn Institute
Kapteyn Institute in Groningen, NL
 ATG HQ
ATG HQ in Noordwijk, NL

Mission

    Be an expertise center dedicated to designing and developing advanced, astronomical research software & systems for international observational astronomy projects.
    To advance the understanding of the Universe by providing world-leading research software and fostering international collaboration in astronomy.
    Contribute to making research software algorithms and systems engineering an internationally established academic career path.

Activities

RAPiD is contracted by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) to develop and maintain the scientific algorithmic software and pipelines for the dozen instruments on the Very Large Telescopes (VLT) and for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory. The team started in 2024.
The activities include consulting, development and maintenance for data analysis systems and algorithms for:

  • Optical / near-infrared imaging & spectroscopy, adaptive optics and high-contrast pipelines
  • Sub-millimetre interferometry
  • Support libraries and common pipelines for ESO telescopes
  • Consultancy on functionality and providing technical direction and subject-matter expertise for pipelines
  • Develop new radio interferometer data reduction algorithm implementations as needed by new scientific objectives for ALMA
  • ALMA pipeline heuristics in support of ongoing telescope data processing operations and research endeavours
ESO’s Paranal Observatory
ESO’s Paranal Observatory which hosts many of the optical/near-infrared instruments for which RAPiD contributes to their scientific pipelines. Credit: ESO
 Raw images from the X-Shooter instrument on the VLT
Raw images obtained simultaneously by the three detectors of the X-Shooter instrument on the VLT. Credit: ESO
 Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE)
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is an extremely powerful and innovative 3D spectrograph with a wide field of view, providing simultaneous spectra of numerous adjacent regions in the sky. Credit: ESO
 ALMA Observatory antennas on the Chajnantor Plateau
ALMA Observatory antennas on the Chajnantor Plateau, 5000 m above sea level. RAPiD contributes to development and maintenance of ALMA software pipelines heuristics. Credit: ESO

RAPiD was proud sponsor of ESA’s ESLAB Symposium 2025 ESA’s ESLAB Symposium 2025

Team members

RAPiD-OPTIR team (with a focus on software for optical and near-infrared data): Rees Williams, Zuzanna Kostrzewa, Matthew Horrobin, Pedro Beirão, Hugo Buddelmeijer, Gijs Verdoes Kleijn.


RAPiD-ALMA team (taking care of pipelines for sub-millimetre interferometry): Rees Williams, Arya Babai, Venus Soancatl Aguilar, Cristian Marocico, Patrick Bos, Luca Di Mascolo.

Get in touch

E-MAIL: rapid@astro.rug.nl

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