Oral Presentation
Monday 16th October 2023
Presenters: Ulisses Barres de Almeida (CBPF) and Bruno Castilho (LNA)
Title: Brazilian Activities in the BRICS Partnership towards a Flagship Astronomy
Project
In 2019 Brazil joined the proposal for a BRICS Astronomy Flagship project centered on the study of transient phenomena and time domain astronomy in general. The Flagship Project aims to develop a dedicated BRICS-wide network of ground- based optical telescopes for an all-sky survey, to detect short lived transients and allow for the follow-up of multi-messenger and high-energy objects and events. Additionally, the involved groups are currently collaborating within the framework of a BRICS-STI Call initiated this year to leverage existing optical and radio infrastructures to serve as a precursor, and prepare for the Flagship Telescope Network. The current multilateral project has as its main goal the integration of the existing facilities to perform coordinated follow-up of multi-messenger and high- energy transients. The realization of the Flagship project in its fullness would represent a ground-breaking scientific and technological collaborative effort amongst the BRICS countries, and deliver a unique global capability in the strategic field of Astronomy and Astrophysics, with many scientific and educational opportunities, as well as spin-off benefits to the BRICS countries as a whole. In this talk I will detail the Brazilian activities and future expectations of participation within these initiatives.
Presenter: Alexei Pozanenko
Title: Practice and search results for electromagnetic counterparts of LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA
We present details of the search for EM counterparts of LIGO/Virgo in 02-04 cycles and early of O4 of LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) in gamma-rays and in optic using the IKI Gama-Ray-Burst Follow up Network (IKI GRB FuN). In particular, we present the results of follow-up observations of only 2 cases of binary neutron star mergers GW170817 and GW190425 that were detected by LIGO/Virgo. Using the SPI-ACS/INTEGRAL gamma-ray detector, we detected a short gamma-ray burst accompanying GW190425, which made it possible to reduce a localization area of the counterpart. No optical counterpart was found in the reduced localization area of GW190425. We also discuss tactics for searching for EM twins for LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA O4.
Presenter: Rob Simmonds
Title: The IDIA Science Gateway and Cloud Federation
The IDIA Science Gateway has been created to access the ilifu OpenStack system that is based at UCT and supports open science primarily in the areas of Radio Astronomy and Bioinformatics. This is the start of creating tools that can be used to set up a federation of cloud computing and storage systems throughout South Africa. Some of the requirements for the gateway include limiting the amount of code that needed to be written by us, to minimize the amount of support time needed to manage user accounts and take advantage of web based federated identity management. We also wanted to provide single-sign-on to existing best in class applications.
Presenter: Yin-Zhe Ma
Title: Golden Time for 21-cm Cosmology:how BRICS country can bring together Survey and Data?
Cosmology has entered a precision era, where large surveys of 21-cm and galaxies will survey volumes of the Universe and therefore provide observational constraints to dark matter and energy. In this talk, I will give an overview of 21-cm cosmology, highlight several key projects currently happening in BRICS countries, and explain why this collaboration can potentially reveal some new information about the Universe.
Presenter: D.J Pisano
Title: Exploring galaxy evolution with CHILES
The COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES) is a 1000 hour, single-pointing survey with the Jansky VLA B configuration. It allows us to study, for the first time, emission from neutral hydrogen (HI) from z=0 to 0.45 over a wide range of environments in a single survey. Commensal with CHILES are the CHILES Con Pol radio continuum survey and CHILES VERDES radio transient surveys. Together with existing multi-wavelength data, these surveys provide an unprecendented look at galaxy evolution over the past 4 billion years. In addition to its science goals, CHILES is serving as a pathfinder for ongoing surveys with MeerKAT and ASKAP. I will discuss the status of the data processing from this survey, current science results, and applicable lessons for ongoing MeerKAT surveys and future surveys with SKA.
Presenter: Simthembile Dlamini
Title: Exploring redshift-space distortions by combining future spectroscopic surveys.
Redshift-space distortions (RSD) play a crucial role in the study of large-scale structure for- mation and the measurement of cosmological parameters. Future spectroscopic surveys offer a promising opportunity to investigate RSD with unprecedented accuracy. In this talk, I will explore the potential of combining multiple upcoming spectroscopic surveys to improve cos- mological measurements. I will then discuss the importance of future spectroscopic surveys, such as the SKAO and the DESI, which are expected to provide vast amounts of high- quality redshift data. By combining the large-scale volume coverage of these surveys, we can mitigate cosmic variance and enhance the statistical power of RSD measurements. I will present results from simulated data sets demonstrating the potential improvements achievable by combining multiple future spectroscopic surveys. Our analysis reveals enhanced precision in measuring the growth index of structures and tighter constraints on cosmological parameters, leading to a deeper understanding of the fundamental properties of the Universe.
Presenter: Liantsoa Randrianjanahary
Title: Cosmology using 1-loop EFT power spectrum for HI intensifying mapping
We explore the information from HI power spectrum in redshift space using 1-loop EFT power spectrum model and HIRAX survey.This work is an extension of our recent paper on Cosmological constraints from the power spectrum and bispectrum of 21cm intensity maps. We marginalise over the bias and nuisance parameters. We notice from the results thatCMB Planck 2018 constraints can be improved if we add non-linearity (EFT).
Presenter: Priya Shah
Title: Research Projects with Gaia
Star Clusters are the fundamental cons2tuents of galaxies and are essen2al to our comprehension of the forma2on and evolu2on of stars as well as galaxies. Gaia DR3, the third data release of Gaia, provides precise astrometry at the sub-milliarcsecond level as well as homogenous three-band photometry for around 1.3 billion different sources. In this talk, I shall describe possible student projects on the study of star clusters that can be carried out using Gaia data. We shall explain how to define the presence of a cluster, study membership, derive ages, reddening and distances to clusters. We shall demonstrate how spectroscopic data from APOGEE and GALAH can be used to study metallici2es. We shall also apply our methods to study the kinema2cs of stars in a cluster and apply it to binary clusters.
Presenter: Dharam Lal
Title: The Deep GHz Universe with GMRT and MeerKAT a.k.a. the superMIGHTEE project
The MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) is one of eight approved Large Survey Projects on the MeerKAT Square Kilometre Array (SKA) precursor telescope. It has devoted nearly 2000 hours of MeerKAT time over several years to secure deep imaging at 2 micro-Jy sensitivity covering 20 sq. deg. over a bandwidth of 0.9-1.6 GHz. Alongside, the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) SKA pathfinder telescope has baselines almost four times larger than those of MeerKAT, and offers the similar imaging angular resolution and sensitivity between 250-850 MHz as MeerKAT MIGHTEE. This ultra-broad data from two major facilities not only has tremendous scientific potential, it provides extraordinary opportunities to study and characterize the deep radio sky, but also presents us with several technical challenges that must be addressed for the wide-band surveys with the SKA. We will summarize the superMIGHTEE project, present early results from it, and show that the scientific output of it will have a profound impact on our understanding of several science drivers, e.g., (i) the evolution of active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies over cosmic time as functions of stellar mass and environment; (ii) the evolution of neutral hydrogen; (iii) the evolution of cosmic magnetic fields in galaxies, groups of galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
Presenter: Marko Krco
Title: The CRAFTS Survey: Commensal Big Data Radio Astronomy
The Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS) is currently underway with over 2,000 hours (out of 11,000 total) already observed and the first data products being released now. Its aim is to map the entire sky visible from the Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). The Survey includes commensal observations of Galactic HI Imaging, Extra-galactic HI, Pulsar Search, FRB Search, and Continuum Imaging. CRAFTS is the first successful commensal survey. In this talk we will discuss the survey, and present some of the results, with a focus on some of the technical breakthroughs that made the survey possible, as well as advances in survey design, calibration, and handling of very large data sets.
Presenter: Sarah White
Title: The brightest (and faintest) sources in the radio sky
Radio observations allow us to identify a wide range of active galactic nuclei (AGN), which are galaxies that have gas accreting onto the supermassive black-hole at the centre. By observing these sources at multiple radio frequencies, a more-complete picture can be built of black-hole accretion activity. This completeness is aided by radio waves being unaffected by dust along the line-of-sight to these sources, which cannot be said for waves in the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum. (Hence, dust obscuration leads to biases in AGN samples selected using optical observations.) A thorough compilation of ~2,000 of the brightest radio-sources in the southern sky [and so of particular relevance for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and its precursor/pathfinder telescopes] is the GLEAM 4-Jy (G4Jy) Sample, selected at 151 MHz, with subsets being followed up with MeerKAT and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). Meanwhile, optical spectroscopy from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is being used to derive crucial redshift information, both for G4Jy sources and for radio-faint AGN in the MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) Survey. The origin of the radio emission in these faint sources is a subject of great debate within the AGN/radio-astronomy communities (White 2023).
Presenter: Jordan Collier
Title: The IDIA processMeerKAT pipeline and its use for science projects
The IDIA processMeerKAT pipeline has been developed as a scalable, user-friendly parallel processing software package, designed to efficiently deal with the onslaught of MeerKAT data. This talk will cover the pipeline’s design and results, and present its use within various MeerKAT science projects.
Presenter: Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay
Title: Mapping the Milkyway with AMASE (Affordable Multiple Aperture Spectroscopy Explorer)
Affordable Multiple Aperture Spectroscopy Explorer (AMASE) is an optical spectroscopic survey of the ionized gas in Milky Way and all Local Group star-forming galaxies at spatial scales of 0.1 to 100 pc and a spectral resolution of σ = 8.5 km s-1. Key emission lines captured include Hα, Hβ, HeII, and strong emission lines of forbidden OI, OIII, NII, and SII in two windows between 4640-5092 Å and 6250-6850 Å. These data will be used to uncover the process driving outflows in star-forming regions, to calibrate the metallicity measurements and photoionization models, and to understand the origin of the diffuse ionized gas. AMASE will pair many identical multi-fibre spectrographs with an array of telephoto lenses to achieve integral field spectroscopy at half-arcminute resolution over large areas of the sky. This is enabled by a significant reduction in the cost of each spectrograph relative to typical astronomical spectrographs of comparable performance. Cost-reduction is achieved by fibre-coupling and reducing the beam size to match commercial photographic lenses and large-format, small-pixel CMOS detectors. High performance is achieved by recent advances in detectors, optical coatings and new grating technology (fused-silica etched gratings that outperform even volume phase holographic gratings). In this talk the speaker will discuss the scientific motivation and update on the instrument development progress.
Speaker: Maria Pruzhinskaya
Title: Exploring the Universe with SNAD: Anomaly Detection in Astronomy
In the era of wide-field surveys and big data in astronomy, the SNAD team (https://snad.space) is exploiting the potential of modern datasets for discovery new, unforeseen, or rare astrophysical phenomena. The SNAD pipeline was built under the hypothesis that, although automatic learning algorithms have a crucial role to play in this task, the scientific discovery is only completely realized when such systems are designed to boost the impact of domain knowledge experts. Our approach combines a diverse set of unsupervised and active machine learning algorithms, tailored feature extraction procedures, and domain knowledge experts who validate the pipeline’s results. Our key contributions include the development of the Coniferest Python library, which offers implementations of two adaptive learning algorithms with an “expert in loop”, and the creation of the SNAD Transient Miner, facilitating the search for specific types of transients. We have also developed the SNAD Viewer, a web portal that provides a centralized view of individual objects from the Zwicky Transient Facility’s (ZTF) data releases, making the analysis of candidates in anomalies more efficient. Finally, when applied to ZTF data, our approach has yielded over a hundred new supernova candidates. We also identified unreported slow-evolving transients that are good superluminous supernova candidates, along with a few other non-catalogued objects, such as red dwarf flares, active galactic nuclei, RS CVn type variables, and young stellar objects. The most intriguing transients have been reported to the Transient Name Server and have been followed up spectroscopically.
Presenter: Nhlengani Baloyi
Title: Using Machine Learning techniques to extract star clusters from Gaia Data
Star clusters (SCs) are the essential building blocks of any galaxy, being as they are the birthplace of most stars. Although there is no formal definition of what star clusters actually are, they are typically described as an ensemble of gravitationally-bound, comoving stars which are usually contained in galaxies. They come in two flavours: globular clusters (GCs) – which are old, spheroidal and compact; and open clusters (OCs) – which are young, irregularly-shaped, loosely-bound and almost exclusively found within the galactic disk. Their existence has been known for over 200 years, and since then, great leaps in our knowledge thereof and technology have been made. Such is punctuated by two important developments in the last 10 years. The first is the launch of the Gaia mission in 2013, which ushered in a new era of high-precision, milliarcsecond astrometry, and with that, detection of a few billion sources (mostly stars). The second is the emergence and importance of machine learning (ML) in response to the rapid increase in the data volumes/sizes handled in astronomy – an acceleration which is punctuated by current and imminent upcoming projects such as the JWST and SKA – as well as the potential for the discovery of new, anomalous objects and phenomena. My research centres on using ML methods to detect SCs using Gaia’s third data release (DR3). SCs themselves constitute a non-negligible portion of the Gaia data. Embedded in them is the star and galaxy formation history, and the spatio-kinematic information, of their host galaxies. They provide laboratories for testing various theories of star and galaxy evolution, dynamics and interactions. The need to detect and study them is thus clear. Additionally, many current cluster finding methods lack reliability, and so a part of my research is based around creating a tool that produces a greater detection efficiency.
Tuesday 17th October 2023
Presenter: Ningchen Sun
Title: Probing the Dynamical Universe with the SiTian Project
The SiTian project is an ambitious time-domain survey that will scan at least 10,000 square deg of sky every 30 min with an integrated network of dozens of 1-m-class telescopes. The scans will produce simultaneous light-curves in 3 optical bands, down to a detection limit of V ~ 21 mag, and the most interesting targets will be followed by at least three 4-m telescopes for spectroscopy. The SiTian Brain, an integrated control system, is designed to overcome the challenge of operating large numbers of telescopes and processing huge amount of data in real time. The main science goals of the project are the detection, identification and monitoring of optical transients (such as supernovae, fast blue optical transients, gravitational wave events) on very short timescales. SiTian will also provide a treasure trove of data for the studies of variable objects. In this talk, I will introduce the recent progress of the SiTian project and discuss the possible opportunities for international collaborations.
Presenter: Stephen Potter
Title: An update on the SAAO’s Intelligent Observatory programme.
The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) has embarked on a programme called the Intelligent Observatory, aiming to upgrade its telescopes, instruments and data analysis to have them intelligently work together in a coordinated fashion. The objective is not only to deliver greater efficiency and agility but to enable the exploration of new Science opportunities particularly in the era of multi-messenger and time-domain astronomy.
This presentation will summarise achievements so far in particular with the completion of one such SAAO telescope to be fully in IO operations.
Presenter: Kuntal Misra
Title: The 4m International Liquid Mirror Telescope in India
Authors: Kuntal Misra (ARIES, India), Jean Surdej (U of Liege, Belgium), Paul Hickson (UBC, Canada) on behalf of a larger international collaboration
The 4m International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is the first optical survey telescope in Devasthal, India. The telescope achieved first light on 29 April, 2022 and is at present in the commissioning phase. The primary mirror is made of liquid mercury, which is continuously spun to achieve a paraboloid shape. It continuously scans a 22 arcmin wide strip of the zenithal sky and records the images in three broadband filters (g’, r’ and i’) using a 4K X 4K CCD camera in Time Delay Integration (TDI) mode. In about 10-12 hours of observations during a single night, approximately 15 GB of data volume is generated. To process this data, different automated pipelines are developed to perform the astrometric and photometric calibration, image subtraction to detect new transients and machine learning based tools to classify these transients. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the ILMT, the first results obtained from the commissioning phase data and the availability of data to the users.
Presenter: Andrey Semena
Title: Large scale X-ray surveys with the incidence grazing telescope ART-XC.
I will discuss some results of the Mikhail Pavlinskiy ART-XC telescope on board of SRC observatory. Specifically, I will present Galactic Bulge survey point source catalog and discuss its characteristics and specifics of ART-XC operation for large area surveys.
Presenter: Ilya Mereminskiy
Title: Searching for X-ray transients on the ART-XC sky
The Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope is ideally suited for sensitive wide-field X-ray surveys covering tens to hundreds square degrees per day. This allows us to search for new populations of X-ray transients, that are too weak to be discovered by all-sky monitors and too rare to be serendipitously found by other grazing-incidence mirror X-ray telescopes. Most of these transients are Galactic X-ray binaries of different classes that we are catching during active episodes.
Presenter: Nicolai Pankov
Title: Alert Watcher and Astronomical Rapid Explorer (AWARE): application for planning the observations of optical transients
The AWARE package for automatic planning of observations of optical transients associated with gamma-ray bursts and LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA is presented. The package can be effectively used for networks of telescopes. The AWARE architecture, scheduling methods, and implemented algorithms are discussed. Several examples of planning for the GRB-IKI-FuN network are given. Plans for further development of the application are being discussed.
Presenter: Avinash Singh
Title: Estimating or “Constraining” Volumetric Rates of Transients
The recent surge in observing facilities and sky surveys has significantly increased the detection
of transients, including that of Super Luminous Supernovae (SLSNe), a subset of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) with extraordinary luminosities. Volumetric rate is the sum of SNe that exploded in a given time span and a fixed co-moving spatial volume. Although SLSNe are rare in the local Universe, understanding the rates of these events helps build up a homogeneous sample. Our study determines the volumetric rate of SLSNe using the high-cadence Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey as its untargeted essence extinguishes the bias towards metal-rich host galaxies.
The research employs a simulation to analyze the survey data, incorporating factors like survey schedule, transient model, and randomizer to sample various transient parameters. Transients are placed at redshifts based on a distribution function derived from the volumetric rate up to a redshift cutoff. We used the preferred model of explaining Type I SLSNe, i.e., a spin-down magnetar, laying the groundwork for further investigation. The ongoing development of simulation code, data filtering (removing human bias), and visualization tools will aid in a comprehensive understanding of SLSNe rates and their underlying physical processes. Ultimately, this research will contribute to the broader knowledge of rare, high-luminosity supernovae and their significance in the evolving Universe.
Presenter: Kshitij Thorat
Title: Translating Radio Astronomical Big Data into Patterns of Discovery
I’ll discuss the forthcoming revolution in radio astronomy powered by new-generation, sensitive radio telescope facilities like the South African MeerKAT and the Indian uGMRT. The massively increased data rates from such telescopes make Machine Learning (ML) techniques an ideal tool to tackle the flood of radio astronomical data. While other branches of astronomy have been using ML techniques for a while now, the field is still nascent as far as radio astronomy is concerned, with increased enthusiasm from the community going back only a few years back.
To illustrate the need for ML techniques application to radio interferometric data, in this talk I’ll focus on the relatively well-established sub-field of source classification and characterisation. The high spatial density of radio sources, the novelty of new “features” being discovered in older classification schemes thought to be well-understood and the sheer data size in image domain in current and upcoming surveys make source characterisation a challenge. In particular, I’ll highlight my and international collaborators’ current efforts undertaken towards detection of rare and unusual sources and how they can enhance our understanding of the astrophysical processes. In the last part of the talk, I’ll make a case for a multi-pronged perspective including multiwavelength approaches including data from LSST and increased engagement with data from SKA precursor instruments as key to solving the issue.
Presenter: Syed Najamul Hasan
Title: Science Cases of Machine Learning in Astronomy
Astronomy has become a very data-intensive science and hence various techniques of machine learning needs to be used for analysis of data. A9er a presenta;on of various applica;ons of machine learning in astronomy, I will focus on two. Firstly, in the problem of morphological classifica;on of galaxies, we shall use GAMPEN to classify a sample of galaxies in the Coma Cluster. In the second case, I will show the applica;on of machine learning clustering techniques DBSCAN and HDBSCAN to iden;fy members of star clusters using Gaia data.
Presenter: Sergey Karpov
Title: Looking for unique objects with excess UV emission in modern large-scale sky surveys
Selection of extreme objects in the data from large-scale sky surveys is a powerful tool for the detection of new classes of astrophysical objects or rare stages of their evolution. The cross-matching of catalogues and analysis of the color indices of their objects is a usual approach for this problem which has already provided a lot of interesting results. However, the analysis of objects that are found in only one of the surveys, and absent in all others, should also attract close attention, as it may lead to the discovery of both transients and objects with extreme color values.
Here we report on our study aimed at the detection of objects with significant UV excess in their spectra by cross-matching of the GALEX all-sky catalogue with the data from optical large scale experiments, especially from the Dark Energy Survey, and analyzing the ones visible in GALEX only, or having extreme UV to optical colors. We describe the methodology for such investigation, discuss the obstacles and artefacts that may mimic such extreme objects, and present the results of the study covering the significant part of the Southern sky.
Presenter: Francesco Maria Flammini Dotti
Title: N-body simulations for planets in star clusters
As most stars form in dense star clusters, it is interesting to study planetary systems in such environments, to help explain the properties of the exoplanets found in our Galaxy. Two main scientific question arise from this particular setting: why we have such a larger amount of free-floating planets in our Galaxy? What is the imprinting of the star cluster on the architecture of planetary systems? There has been different methods to model planets in star clusters, both for planetary systems and free-floating planets. Semi-analytical approaches and N-body direct simulations are the recent tools being used to simulate such scenario. In my talk, I will illustrate a historical approach used for the modeling of planets in star cluster and then the approach our group uses for planets in star cluster. We mainly use two main approach: NBODY6+ +GPU for the star cluster dynamics and free-floating planets dynamics and REBOUND for the planetary systems dynamics, integrated in AMUSE. The second approach uses the newly-crafted code NBODY6++GPU-ML, which is used to integrate both planets and star dynamics at the same time. I will give a summary on how these codes works, the scientific contributions and achievements and what the future holds in this particular branch of astronomy.
Presenter: Rupak Roy
Title: Low-resolution spectroscopic view of the hosts of Tidal Disruption Events
In the upcoming years of time-domain astronomy small and medium class optical telescopes will play crucial roles to probe the distant transients and their environments. With the advent of time-domain astronomy brilliant transients have already been discovered near the centers of distant galaxies. Most of them exhibit very broad lightcurves with almost featureless spectra at early stages. They are spatially unresolved from their hosts’ centers. Some of them are supposed to be disruptions of solar mass stars by supermassive black holes located at the centers of their host galaxies. These are commonly known as Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs). Around 80 such TDEs (or TDE-like events) have been discovered so far. Observationally it has been found that TDEs are mostly hosted by galaxies that have old stellar populations. We have analyzed low-resolution spectroscopic data of centers of ~50 galaxies where TDE / TDE-like events were observed previously. These observations were performed from 10m SALT, and also from several medium class optical facilities. Here, we will present a comprehensive analysis of the spectra of these galaxies, to understand the bulk properties of TDE hosts. We will also present a comparative study between the properties of these galaxies with the properties of other galaxies where TDEs were not discovered.
Presenter: Eslam Hussein
Title: Hack4dev
Hack4dev is pioneering the integration of AI and Data Science into education, addressing traditional educational systems’ current rigidity and slowness in adopting these transformative technologies. Through specialized hackathons aimed at higher education, students are introduced to the multi-disciplinary world of data science, emphasizing hands-on experience and practical application. Meanwhile, the younger generation, specifically 9th graders, are exposed to coding and foundational machine learning concepts, ensuring early familiarity and proficiency. Furthermore, recognizing the pivotal role of educators in this transformative journey, an ongoing initiative focuses on equipping them with the latest AI tools. These multifaceted approaches ensure a holistic acceleration in the adoption of AI, preparing the next generation for a tech-centric future.
Presenter: Cara Turner
Title: codeX is unlocking Africa’s coding potential.
Learning software skills requires new forms of thinking (computational thinking) supported by new forms of communication (computer languages), using new tools (an ever-growing variety of software and hardware systems). In the context of low digital literacy and unequal access to software training, how do we make coding an accessible career path for South Africans from all backgrounds, and prepare candidates for the software workplace? CodeX has been making this change since 2014. This is how we do it.
Presenter: Bonita De Swart
Title: Promoting Gender Inclusivity in Data Science Training and Development Programmes – A case study using the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) Big Data project
The Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) Big Data project represents ahuman capacity development intervention looking at increasing Africa’s research and skillsbase in data-driven science and associated technologies needed for dealing with extremelylarge data sets. DARA Big Data was established in 2017 with an objective of buildingcomputational skills needed for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). These are skills linked tohigh performance computing, data analytics and big data technologies, amongst otherareas. Training and development initiatives forming part of DARA Big Data have includedskills development workshops, schools and hackathons, as well as post-graduate scholarshipopportunities in data science intensive research applied to astronomy, the health sciencesand sustainable agriculture, which can be taken up at partnering international institutions.To determine the gender gap in training and development initiatives forming part of DARA Big Data, and potential factors contributing to the gender gap, a case study of the project was undertaken by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). The findings from the case study were published as part of a Women in Data Science report in March 2021, which highlights the need for targeted interventions that can be implemented at programme, institutional and policy level to ensure women’s participation in capacity development opportunities. In this talk, the findings from the DARA Big Data case study will be presented giving more insight into the project’s inclusion of women and challenges faced by African women in taking up training and development opportunities. The final recommendations from the case study will additionally be presented giving tangible actions based on experiences gained through implementation of the DARA Big Data project. The recommendations can be easily applied more broadly to other areas in science, technology, and innovation in promoting gender equality in a wide range of scientific fields.
Speaker: Niruj Mohan Ramanujam
Title: EDO in the age of big data: bringing the Universe into classrooms
Do research, especially with the use of archival data. Their effect on education, development, and outreach are probably less appreciated, especially with regard to their potential that goes beyond just pattern recognition in citizen science projects. Starting with some well known examples of the usage of datasets in online education portals, I will discuss the novel ways in which these can be used, and what are the common obstacles for doing so. Some specific examples from the Indian context will also be discussed, including plans for the upcoming (worlds first) LED dome planetarium in India. I will end with some proposals on how to take this forward as an international endeavour, especially in the context of various BRICS astronomy projects.
Title: Chenzhou Cui
Title: IVOA and Its Education Resources
The Virtual Observatory (VO) aims to provide a research environment that will open new possibilities for scientific research based on data discovery, efficient data access, and interoperability. Besides being a data-intensively online astronomical research environment, VO can be a most effective resource with its excellent educational tools and knowledge bases, deriving directly from professional astronomy. Education Interest Group (EduIG) of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) is a communication channel between the IVOA community and the public of educators and students. During the last two decades, a large member of teaching and training resources for VO have been developed and contributed by the IVOA and its project members. In my talk, the role of VO in education and an overview of these resources will be presented.