This project aims to understand the origin of mysterious fast radio bursts, which are radio fireworks in the Universe happening more than 1000 times in the sky every day. Revealing their origin is one of the most important missions in astronomy and astrophysics. Thousands of fast radio bursts continue to be detected. Each radio burst has more than 10 observed parameters, making it more difficult to handle such multi-parameter data recently. To overcome this problem, our research team focuses on the machine-learning approach, which allows us to treat many observed parameters simultaneously.

Our research team published the first paper to classify fast radio bursts with machine learning, taking the lead on this subject. Mr. Bjorn Jasper Raquel (hereafter, Jasper) at Rizal Technological University in Philippines is one of the collaborators in my research team. He is remotely working on the machine-learning project and recently wrote the first-author paper under my remote supervision. The paper was submitted to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, which is one of the major scientific journals in astronomy. Jasper has been working in Philippines in remote collaboration with me. If I could invite him to Taiwan, our research efficiency would become even higher. Therefore, Jasper is one of the ideal candidates for this TEEP project, although any other excellent candidates can be considered.

The successful candidate will work on the machine-learning approach to the mysterious origin of fast radio bursts with publicly available new data obtained with new telescopes: the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) and Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). Based on this project, we aim to publish a first-author paper by the TEEP student. Our research team has two ‘group meetings’ for research progress and three paper-reading journal clubs per week. These meetings have a lot of opportunities to touch on and discuss the cutting edge of astronomy and astrophysics. I would expect active interaction between my students at NCHU physics in Taiwan with the TEEP student, which will benefit our internationality in the department of physics. In addition to this, I will provide an opportunity for the TEEP student to present his/her results at a conference in Taiwan.