I am a first year PhD researcher working with the white dwarfs and transients research group. My supervisor is Deanne Coppejans. I study AM CVn stars (a sub-class of binary white dwarf stars) in the radio spectrum using data from the VLA.

Little is understood about the accretion and outflow physics of cataclysmic variable stars, and their compact binary counterparts, AM CVn systems. Using observations from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), I have obtained the deepest radio constraints to date, for two such AM CVn systems: AM CVn and HP Lib. By cross-matching with other large scale surveys such as LOFAR and VLASS, the radio emission properties and mechanisms of AM CVn and CV populations can be better characterised. This can propel our undestanding of the Type Ia supernovae progenitors, which form the bulk of positive detections with GOTO's difference photometry.

I completed my MSci at the University of Birmingham with my final year dissertation on machine learning applications for radio astronomy, with a focus on classification of radio objects from MeerKAT. I also work with the GOTO and ePESSTO+ collaborations for follow-up and data analysis on transients.

Research/Publications

• Classifying Optical (Out)bursts in Cataclysmic Variables: The Distinct Observational Characteristics of Dwarf Noave, Micronovae, Stellar Flares and Magnetic Gating; Ilkiewicz et al., 2024
• The fast transient AT 2023clx in the nearby LINER galaxy NGC 3799, as a tidal disruption event of a very low-mass star; Charalampopoulos et al., 2024
• Evolution of Spin in the Intermediate Polar CC Sculptoris; Paice et al., 2024
• The partial tidal disruption of a star on a 700-day orbit around a supermassive black hole; Makrygianni et al., in prep
• Machine Learning Applications for Radio Astronomy, May 2023 (MSci Dissertation)
• Sahu et al., in prep

Past Research

• Using data from the MeerKAT galactic plane survey and the VLA FIRST survey, I constructed a deep learning model which identified and classified different radio objects within the MeerKAT galactic plane survey. This was done in conjunction with a GAN (generative adversarial network) to generate synthetic radio images from the MeerKAT GPS for training the classification algorithm. This project was performed as a preparatory study for an automated classification algorithm to identify radio objects with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) when it will be operational in the near future.
• Due to inaccurate weather outputs from on-site weather stations at the SPECULOOS South Observatory, Paranal, Chile, resulting in a reduction in observation time, I constructed an algorithm which analyses the sky conditions in real-time from an on-site All-Sky camera. This provided accurate sky conditions with accuracies of over 90% which would result in an increase in observation time, thus aiding the detection of transits with longer durations.
• During my third year of my BSc/MSci, I calculated habitable exoplanet occurrence rates around K dwarf stars, using a simulated set of stars from TRILEGAL. I applied this for the upcoming ESA PLATO mission, and contributed to the asteroseismology aspects of the project involving simulating oscillation curves of these stars too.

Meetings & Conferences

• AM CVn 5 - 5th International Workshop on AM CVn Binaries. 5-8 September 2023, Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, Northern Ireland, UK
• What was that? - Planning ESO Follow up for transients, variables, and solar system objects in the era of LSST. 22-26 January, ESO Garching
• UK Transients 2024, University of Leicester, UK, 3rd June 2024
• 30 years of superluminal motion in GRS 1915+105, Royal Astronomical Society, UK, 10th May 2024

Outreach/Engagement

• Astronomy & Astrophysics Representative at the Postgrad Student Staff Liaison Committee, Department of Physics, University of Warwick.
• Speaker for talks at local schools and astronomical societies
• Organiser for Machine Learning for Transient Science, Warwick 2023
• I have been on committee as chair and outreach officer for the University of Birmingham's Astronomical Society from 2020 - 2023. During this period, I organised talks, school outreach events, and astronomy events for the nearby communities. You can find out more about my outreach engagements and watch the talks I have delivered on my website Sitara Tales.
• You can check my LinkedIn for other engagements.

Awards/Scholarships

• Warwick Astrophysics PhD Prize Scholar (2023/24 entry), University of Warwick

Teaching

• Year 1 electronics lab sessions demonstrator
• Year 1 physics undergraduate math support sessions

Teaching

• Year 1 electronics lab sessions demonstrator
• Year 1 physics undergraduate math support sessions