As the scale of data and complexity of processing capabilities needed for scientific research grow, cloud computing is becoming the go-to technology to be able to handle the data and deploy scientific software pipelines. Research is also a global enterprise with large projects accumulating tens, sometimes hundreds of collaborators worldwide. It is therefore natural to seek to integrate the large … Read More
In the early universe, most matter as we know it was in the form of neutral hydrogen. Some of it is still lying around and is often seen because it absorbs light from galaxies further away, and obstructs our seeing. Neutral hydrogen was almost evenly distributed, but small differences in density were present. Mapping this neutral hydrogen, we are able … Read More
A hackathon is a fun, fast-paced, strenuous, yet highly rewarding event where developers/coders, designers, strategists, and enthusiasts come together to work on project ideas and build solutions. Hackathons are known for late-night coding in groups, with shared pizzas and screens – but not in these times of pandemic. This time, we do it remotely. This hackathon is co-hosted by the University … Read More
The Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy (CARTA) is a new image visualization and analysis tool designed for ALMA, the VLA and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) pathfinder telescopes. CARTA is developed by a consortium of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA), the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and the Department of Physics, University of Alberta. The CARTA development team is … Read More
An initiative by Dr. Ryan Daniels at the Forensic DNA laboratory in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape, this month-long workshop takes the participants from the basics of using Unix, the most common computer platform for science, to characterising ancestry with DNA data using cloud computing platforms and software containerisation. The diversity of topics of … Read More
The IDIA Pipelines team is pleased to announce V1.1 of the IDIA Pipeline. The package uses CASA/MPICASA to do the initial cross-calibration (1GC, a’priori) of MeerKAT data on the ilifu SLURM Cluster. This release implements the concurrent cross-calibration of spectral windows on the ilifu cluster and includes several tweaks to improve performance and stability. This release brings several scientific improvements … Read More
This is the name of a panel discussion organised by the U.S. National Institutes of Health as part of a funding opportunity for open data science platforms. Prof. Russ Taylor, director of IDIA, as well as Prof. Nicky Mulder, head of the computational biology group at UCT and ilifu partner both contributed presentations describing the research cloud infrastructure we have … Read More
The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) invites proposals from researchers at IDIA partner institutions and other South African institutions to conduct MeerKAT Open Time Project research using the Ilifu Cloud Computing Research Facility. Expressions of interest will be reviewed, and successful applicants will be provided a letter of support, which can be included in the associated MeerKAT observing … Read More
A group of international researchers from South Africa, Germany, the United States of America, Finland, the United Kingdom, Italy and Australia have studied the relation between the X-ray emission of intra-group medium, the gas found between galaxies in a group, and the 1.4 GHz radio emission of the central radio galaxy of a group. This study forms part of the … Read More
Carolina Odman of IDIA’s Development and Outreach office, and Kevin Govender from the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development explore how science and technology can fundamentally change the context in which human development is defined, through the lens of shared ownership and decentralisation. The reflection is a contribution to the United Nations Development Programme and International Science Council project on … Read More
