Radio astronomy in Africa:
Opportunities for cooperation with Europe within the context of the African-European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP) Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
• Global ‘mega-science’ project – World’s largest telescope - 50 times more sensitive – Nobel Prize science • Dark energy and dark matter; Gravitational waves; Proto- planets – Proposed construction cost €1.5 billion – Operations and maintenance estimated €150 - €200 million per year for 50 years – Operational < 2024 • Build in phases • Use existing infrastructure, especially in the core (first 180km) • Co-located in Africa and Australia
History of the Universe SKA dishes in the “Core”
4 Dishes of the MeerKAT Precursor KAT 7 Square Kilometre Array Technology
• Uses 100MW and >100Tb/s • Pushes all technology to the limits • Thousands of antennas combined – 1million sq m collecting area • SKA central computer has the processing power of about 1 billion PCs - 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 operations per sec – exaflops (10E18) • Enough optical fibre to wrap twice around the Earth • SKA dishes will produce 10 times the global internet traffic • SKA aperture arrays produce 100 times the global internet traffic • Enough raw data to fill 15 million 64 GB iPods every day • Sensitive enough to detect an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away The African VLBI Network
• Convert existing communications antennas into radio astronomy facilities. – Maintain existing staff. – Install new receivers and instrumentation. – Create a VLBI array that will link with • Europe, the USA and Australasia.
7 European + African VLBI Network
8 But why should Africa pioritise Radio Astronomy? • Astronomy has great public appeal - • Radio astronomy has historically led to major technology spin-offs especially in ICT • Mega-projects (e.g. science research infrastructures) can be uniquely productive: • Radio astronomy projects in Africa – Raise profile, raise money and drag unrelated development along – Profile science and engineering as key development issues – Attract young people into SET training and careers especially ICT – Strengthen universities and teaching – Develop high level technical and scientific capacity for innovation – Develop high level problem technical and problem-solving skills to strengthen administration and governance
International Industry Collaboration
• Close collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks • Mutual benefit R&D agreements with IBM, Intel; pending with Oracle • And others • Partnerships for pre-competitive research benefit us all • Success story: ROACH correlator Driving human capital development
• Research chairs • Visiting / joint professorships • University grants – support or lecturers • Postdoctoral fellowships • Postgraduate bursaries • Undergraduate bursaries • Internships • Technician training – national diplomas at universities of technology • Artisan training • Youth and science • Development of astrophysics A focused and structured and related engineering in programme with a pipeline Africa partner states strategy • Mobility grants The South African SKA Project Human Capital Development Programme Intake by academic year
350
311 300
250
200
150
100 90 64 56 49 50 29 9 14 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
African partners now teaching astronomy
Name Current level of teaching Status
Kenya Undergraduate Honours
Mozambique Undergraduate Honours
Mauritius Postgraduate MSc
Madagascar Postgraduate MSc
Zambia Undergrad In process
Botswana Undergrad In process
Ghana Undergrad In process Opportunities for African- European Cooperation • Especially within AERAP context – Research collaboration – Researcher training and mobility programmes – Research infrastructure partnerships, e.g. VLBI – Leverage non-science benefits of radio astronomy – industry cooperation – Share experience outreach and education programmes The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform
• Objectives
• Develop and update agendas for radio astronomy cooperation
• Strengthen research and innovation in Europe and Africa
• Improve knowledge transfer
• Stimulate competitiveness across both continents
• Utilise EU-Africa collaboration in radio astronomy as a platform for broader global partnerships
• Bring together key players from private, public and research sectors
The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform • Activities
• AERAP Helpdesk • Workshops:
Date Event 29 May 2012 Workshop on Leveraging New Funding Opportunities for African-European Radio Astronomy Partnerships 6 September Workshop on Human Capital Development – 2012 Researcher Mobility and Training Programmes 27 September Workshop on Human Capital Development in 2012 Pretoria, South Africa 9 October 2012 Workshop on Renewable Energy Solutions for Radio Astronomy 14 November Workshop on Infrastructure Investment and 2012 Technology Development including Scientific Instrumentation for Radio Astronomy 6 and 7 March Workshop to discuss the Draft AERAP Framework 2013 Programme for Cooperation The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform
• Participants • Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany • ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for • Nokia Siemens Networks Radio Astronomy) • NOW (Netherlands Organisation for • European Industrial Engineering Scientific Research) SRL, Italy • Omnisys Instruments, Sweden • Ghana Space Science and • Onsala Space Observatory, Technology Centre, Ghana Sweden • Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd., United • Rhodes University, South Africa Kingdom • Science & Technology Facilities • IBM Council, United Kingdom • INAF Institute for Radio Astronomy, • SKA South Africa Italy • SKA Organisation • Institute for Astrophysics Andalucia • University of Cambridge, United • Institute for Telecommunications, Kingdom Portugal • University of Leeds, United • JIVE - Joint Institute for VLBI in Kingdom Europe • University of Oxford, United • Leiden Observatory, Netherlands Kingdom • University of Porto, Portugal • University of Zambia
AERAP Framework Programme for Cooperation gbv Purpose and Evolution
• Thematic priorities:
Instrumentation Research Support for Research and Infrastructures Global Projects Development
Human Capital ICT and Big Renewable Development Data Energy
Astronomy as a Tool for Science Public Outreach Education The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform
• Implementation
Date Action Presentation of the AERAP Framework Programme 18 June 2013 for Cooperation to Members of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium
18/19 June 2013 1st Implementation Workshop in Brussels, Belgium
2nd Implementation Workshop in Cape Town, South 17 July 2013 Africa 3rd Implementation Workshop in Brussels bringing Autumn 2013 together the African and European radio astronomy community
Thank you for your attention!
Further information on AERAP: www.aerap.org
Contact: [email protected]