The University of Cape Town (UCT) has highlighted the tenth anniversary of the country’s Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA). This is a joint endeavour between UCT, the University of the Western Cape and the University of Pretoria and is hosted by UCT. The IDIA was created to meet the problem of processing, analysing, interpreting and visualising the huge amounts of data that would be produced by the next generation of radio telescope arrays. South Africa’s own world-leading MeerKAT, which became fully operational in 2018, is the most notable of these. And now the South Africa-based mid-radio frequency array of the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope will soon also start operations.

As IDIA continues to lead the charge in data-intensive astronomy, it exemplifies the potential of collaborative scientific exploration in creating new frontiers for knowledge and…

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has highlighted the tenth anniversary of the country’s Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA). This is a joint endeavour…