News and Events

DARA Big Data Africa school 2019 underway

On October 6 – 16 takes place the 2019 edition of the DARA Big Data Africa School. The Big Data Africa School aims to introduce fundamental data science tools and techniques to talented young science and engineering graduates across a range of disciplines. The aim is for students to develop skills and knowledge in working efficiently on extremely large datasets … Read More

How can we realise a corporate world that tackles social challenges? – Judi Sandrock on Space, Schools and Social entrepreneurship

“How can we realise a corporate world that tackles social challenges?” Asking this question motivated our speaker, Ms. Judi Sandrock to move from a purely corporate environment to social entrepreneurship and co-found XinaBox. She came and explained the XinaBox model for our third SEADS series seminar on Friday 20 September. She identified the need to diversify the economy in order … Read More

IDIA Retreat – a research community dreaming big

On Thursday 19 September, 35 IDIA researchers and staff gathered in Hout Bay for a day-long science retreat. As we both look back at the first four years of the institute, and look to the future and plan for the next quinquennium, this was an enlightening and inspiring day. In his concluding remarks, Russ Taylor expressed the conviction that we … Read More

South African-European Federated Cloud Piloting Meeting

The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) recently participated in the Federated Cloud Piloting at Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Italy from 10-11 September 2019. The purpose of the meeting was to launch the pilot demonstration project of a South African – European federated cloud to support collaboration on SKA Pathfinder data intensive large programs between South African and European research teams. This meeting … Read More

IDIA and INAF Observatories of Catania and Cagliari to sign agreement

On 10 September 2019, the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) are signing an agreement to collaborate in radio astronomy research. The research in particular will utilize virtual Reality (VR) technologies on radio astronomy data coming from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, starting with its precursor, the MeerKAT. VR is not … Read More

Multi-Wavelength Astronomy in the Cloud Workshop

The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy and the South African Astronomical Observatory would like to invite you to a workshop about multi-wavelength astronomy, current and future data challenges, and how cloud computing technology can help to address them. The Multi-Wavelength Astronomy in the Cloud Workshop will be held at the SAAO Auditorium on 26 August 2019 from 09h00 – 17h00. The aim … Read More