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
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), … Read More
Sol Plaatje University hosted the Ilifu Big Data Hackathon from 12 – 13 March 2020. The Ilifu Human Capital Development and Outreach Committee in partnership with SPU’s School of Natural and Applied Sciences aims to promote active usage of ilifu (a big data infrastructure for data-intensive research) through hands-on activities, training and skills development. The aim of the Hackathon is … Read More
We are excited to announce that we will be joined by a new postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Francesco Cavallaro, who will be based at the University of Cape Town. Dr. Cavallaro will be working with the ThunderKAT, MIGHTEE and MeerLICHT projects on research into stellar radio emission. Dr. Cavallaro joins us from Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Catania, Sicily, … Read More
We are pleased to announce that SPARCS X 2020 “Capturing science from the pathfinder survey data” will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, 8-11 September 2020. Registration will soon be open via: https://www.idia.ac.za/SPARCS2020/ SPARCS is the forum to maximize the scientific return from the SKA Pathfinder projects’ continuum surveys. The SKA PAthfinder Radio Continuum Survey (SPARCS) Working Group has the following goals: To coordinate developments of techniques, to avoid … Read More
We are pleased once again to welcome another international visitor, Prof. Jayanne English from the University of Manitoba, a university in Winnipeg, Canada. Prof. English is visiting IDIA from 31 October to 10 November 2019, and will be hosted by the University of Cape Town. Prof. English is a long time acquaintance of Prof. Russ Taylor, the Director of IDIA. … Read More
On October 6 – 16 takes place the 2019 edition of the DARA Big Data Africa School. The Big Data Africa School aims to introduce fundamental data science tools and techniques to talented young science and engineering graduates across a range of disciplines. The aim is for students to develop skills and knowledge in working efficiently on extremely large datasets … Read More
