Conference to address the SKA-driven big data challenge in Africa

13 Dec 2017
13 Dec 2017

The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) is organising a conference "SKA-Driven Big Data Challenge in Africa: Science, Innovation and Opportunity” to be held from 28 to 31 May 2018 in Madagascar.

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With MeerKAT expected to be fully operational in 2018, the era of big data has dawned in Africa. With the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project on the horizon, planning and infrastructure development among partner countries across Africa will begin in earnest, effectively bringing big data to the African continent.

To coincide with the commencement of science observations on MeerKAT and the milestone this represents in the scientific and technical journey of the SKA on the African continent, it is timely for the African partner community to have a conversation on how best to unlock the tremendous potential of the SKA.

This conference aims to bring together postgraduate students, researchers, data scientists, technologists, and other stakeholders in the African partner countries to discuss the opportunities and challenges of data-intensive astronomy in the SKA era.

The goals of the meeting are to:

  • Exchange information on big data developments among the African partners
  • Chart the scientific pathway to the SKA in Africa and the African VLBI Network
  • Plan the implementation of the South African Data Intensive Research cloud as an African solution to the data challenge of the SKA and a solution for data-intensive research in other science domains
  • Explore opportunities for collaborative projects in science, data systems and engineering.

The deadline for registration is 28 February 2018. 

Interested in this event? Find out more and register on the IDIA website.