127 students benefit from SKA human development project

Science ministers from nine African countries implementing the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope and African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (AVN) projects have noted progress in the training of students for the initiative, although financial resources remain a concern.

“While all the member countries highlighted financial constraints as a major obstacle to the full rollout of the AVN project, they were unanimous that progress was being made,” said a statement released at the conclusion of the 5th Ministerial Forum Meeting on SKA/AVN held in Cape Town, South Africa on 16 October.

Positive results

“Partner countries particularly welcomed the positive results of the SKA Human Capital Development (HCD) programme. To date 127 students from partner countries have benefitted from the HCD initiative, out of a total of 136 from Africa as a whole. Of these, 14 have graduated with honours, 32 with masters and 24 with doctoral degrees,” it said.

The meeting was attended by ministers and senior officials responsible for science and technology in the partner countries which include Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia.

The SKA will have a collecting area of 1 million square metres and will be 50 to 100 times more powerful than any other. It will utilise cutting-edge technology in electronics, computing, network connectivity, material sciences, and engineering. The SKA will be located in Australia and nine African countries.

The main aim of the SKA/AVN African Ministerial Forum is to provide political and strategic leadership on SKA and AVN projects as well as other relevant initiatives, including the establishment of big data infrastructure and capacity.

Big data

The meeting also noted that another initiative aimed at developing radio astronomy capacity in partner countries, namely the Development in Africa through Radio Astronomy (DARA) big data programme, was making “valuable contributions to strengthen radio astronomy in partner countries”.

DARA, specifically designed to support the African SKA and AVN projects and funded by South Africa and the United Kingdom, undertakes numerous projects, including running Linux and Python training for science and engineering postgraduate students at South Africa’s Centre for High Performance Computing.

The Big Data Africa project, recognised as important for both astronomy and Africa’s economic progress, has been taken to three African regions: South Africa and Namibia are to explore ways of integrating Big Data Africa into the Southern African Development Community’s industrialisation initiatives, while Kenya is to champion it in East Africa and Ghana will concentrate on the West African region.

At the start of the meeting, South African Science and Technology Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane was quoted as saying African universities were benefiting from the programme.

“We have rolled out two-dish interferometers at universities for teaching and training purposes in Botswana and Mozambique as pilots. We have also rolled out about 10-20 computers loaded with software used in radio astronomy in Botswana and Mozambique as pilots. We have been able to provide assistance to university astronomy programmes in partner countries through workshops and support to curriculum,” she said.

Increased training opportunities

“We have initiated an AVN Human Capacity Development Programme, which has supplemented the SKA Human Capacity Development Programme to increase the number of recipients and training opportunities from the SKA/AVN partner countries.”

In a previous update to the African Union it was estimated that the SKA project will attract 500 of the world's best scientists and engineers to Africa. Furthermore it is anticipated that the construction of the SKA project will amount to US$1-1.5 billion foreign direct investment in nine African countries, and the annual operating budget of the SKA will be about US$200 million (or US$10 billion over the 50-year lifetime of the telescope).

On the continent interest in astronomy is growing, with the establishment in Kenya and Mozambique of astronomy programmes at the Universities of Nairobi and Eduardo Mondlane respectively.