The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy through its partner institutions conducted outreach activities over the past three weeks. IDIA has engaged students at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape on the potential careers in for Astronomers in Big Data, Data Science and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
IDIA hosted an information table at both the UCT and UWC on Open Days of these respective institutions. During these open day sessions volunteers based at the Astronomy Departments of UCT and UWC volunteered to share their experiences, insights and wisdom with potential Astronomy students who are currently in their final year of high school. The activities involved live demonstrations of the visualizations IDIA has developed, along with in-depth discussions on the kind of projects researchers at IDIA are involved in especially with regards to the MeerKat telescope, the precursor to the SKA telescope.
IDIA was also represented at UWC during its CareerXpo where students in Computer Sciences, Astronomy, Information Systems, Biotechnology were exposed to the career prospects, research projects and internships that IDIA offers students and researchers. Students were informed about the Ilifu Research Cloud being developed by a team of dedicated professionals at IDIA, and the type of data that is processed via this infrastructure for research purposes.
IDIA continues to engage the public through public talks, exhibitions, interviews and presentations on the work conducted by its researchers. Researchers at IDIA are actively involved in the delivery of presentations on their researchers at meetings, conferences and workshops.
UCT Open Day (04 May 2019)
UWC Open Day (11 May 2019) 
