The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) team.
IDIA team pioneers data-intensive astronomy in South Africa
The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) has won the NSTF-South32 Special Annual Theme Award: Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in South Africa (SA), recognising its pioneering efforts in bridging astronomy and big data. “Our goal is to build capacity and expertise in data-intensive research and enable the SA research community to step forward as global leaders,” explains Prof Rob Simmonds, Associate Director for New Technology Initiatives.
Born in 2015, IDIA is the brainchild of three local universities — the University of Cape Town, University of the Western Cape and University of Pretoria — alongside the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). IDIA emerged as a collaborative effort in the face of the looming data deluge from projects like MeerKAT and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
At the heart of the work is ilifu, an advanced federated cloud infrastructure that has already served over 400 astronomers and postgraduate students across 12 universities, and four national facilities in SA alone. Since 2018, nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles incorporating its infrastructure have been published.
Project Manager Kechil Kirkham describes IDIA as an academic organisation that performs several functions: “We nurture postgraduates so that they remain engaged and able to contribute to astronomical research. We also mentor software developers and support astronomers in processing their data.”
One of IDIA’s most significant contributions is the development of open-source software tools like CARTA (Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy) and iDaVIE-v (immersive Data Visualisation Interactive Explorer for volumetric rendering within Virtual Reality), reshaping astronomical research and pushing the boundaries of data visualisation. “Integration with Virtual Reality (VR) software is an exciting avenue for visualisation software, which we are actively pursuing through the IDIA Visualisation Lab,” Kirkham says.
Associate Prof Sally Macfarlane, IDIA’s Associate Director for Development and Outreach, says the team is passionate about democratising science and inviting everyone to join the cosmic conversation: “Through innovative outreach programmes, we’re lowering the entry barrier for newcomers to cloud-based big data science, and fostering inclusivity in data science and computing projects. Future efforts will also improve accessibility and usability, ensuring that researchers of all backgrounds can benefit from these tools.”
The IDIA team sees the NSTF-South32 Special Annual Theme Award: 4IR in SA as a recognition of past achievements and a catalyst for future innovation: “This is a pivotal moment, and we will leverage the publicity and recognition to drive our vision for the country forward — strengthening partnerships, building new collaborations and inspiring the next generation of IDIA’s infrastructure users.”