Nicholas Pritchard

A picture of Nic at ICRAR

Hello

I am Nic, a PhD candidate researching neuromorphic computing at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). I work on brining the next generation of neural networks to life to help clear noise from radio telescopes. I have previously worked on the execution framework for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

I believe technology can and should help people make the most of their time, a goal that impacts every part of my work.


What am I up to now?

You will probably find me at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

I am a co-founder of Cohesion Technologies. We make software to facilitate strategic product management.

I also run a small Todo-list app called Mondage. After drowning myself in too many tasks, I wanted to be able to express that Task A needs to happen before Task B, without any sort of convoluted sub-lists. No Todo-list app I could find did this simply, so I made my own. Feel free to try it and let me know what you think.

Research Interests

Spiking Neural Networks & Artificial Intelligence

I investigate how a particular type of neural network (spiking neural networks), which naturally evolve over time could help solve extremely high-rate data processing problems. Radio Astronomy is a great place to find these kinds of problems, but the techniques I create are applicable anywhere there's data changing in time.

Data-Intensive Astronomy

Science's data processing needs are growing immensely, and computational workflows aim to address these needs. ICRAR's Data-Intensive Astronomy team is building the computational backend for the SKA, which needs to handle a data-ingest rate up to 50TB/s.

Scientific Reproducibility

The scientific method has given humanity some of its greatest successes and our most terrifying inventions. Continuing to do science we can trust is an eternal struggle made harder in a sea of data. Creating technologies to simplify this process is key to solving our most pressing challenges.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is closer than ever, and we'll need a lot of software. My earliest work involved simulating quantum algorithms (Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithm (QAOA)) assuming that this technology is ready to search for problems that would benefit from these exotic machines.

Traffic and Urban Planning

Impending autonomous driving technology has ignited questions about the limits of our transport systems. I have helped the Planning and Transport Research Centre PATREC with computer vision and modelling projects to investigate autonomous technologies applied to Perth, Western Australia, my hometown.

Writing

You can find my publications on Google Scholar.


Reading

I am always on the hunt for better things to read, and for the last few years, I have kept track of my favourite book I read that year. If you find something you ultimately enjoy, let me know, and if you have some suggestions, I would love to hear them.

2023 - How the World Really Works - Vaclav Smil

2022 - Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

2021 - Bullsh*t Jobs - David Graeber

2020 - Shoe Dog - Phil Knight

2019 - IQ84 - Haruki Murakami

2018 - The Odyssey - Homer (translation by Stephen Mitchell)

2017 - IT - Stephen King

2016 - Renault - Saint Loup