The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy hosted a “first users” workshop on 23 November 2018 at the University of the Western Cape. The purpose of the workshop was to providing information to users and potential users on developments, policies, systems, resources, access; and receive information from users on how the facility is meeting their needs (or not), what is working well, what is not, what issues need work etc.
The building blocks of Ilifu were created in 2015 when UCT and the North West University worked together to build a research cloud. Since then IDIA added additional nodes, and the result became known as the IDIA research cloud. The IDIA cloud, which has served as a test case for the use of cloud technology for collaborative research, is currently used by researchers across seven countries to collaborate on the huge data sets coming off the MeerKAT telescope.The Ilifu facility aims to support researchers in the two strategic science domains, within the six partners. But user-access will be quite wide as collaborators on approved projects will have access to the facilities (UCT e-Research).
Participants:
- Russ Taylor
- Rob Simmonds
- Jasper Horrell
- Timothy Carr
- Alecia Naidu
- Jeremy Smith
- Angus Comrie
- Peter van Heudsen
- Gerrit Botha
Presentations made at the workshop can be found here
Please read about the launch of IDIA Research Cloud in partnership with the Iziko Planetarium and Digital Dome
(Image source: UCT e-Research)