Building vital capacity for the world's biggest radio telescope (SKA)

2 December 2009

While the MeerKAT telescope - a pathfinder which will contribute to the development of the technology required for the SKA - is being constructed in the Northern Cape, the South African SKA Youth into Science and Engineering Programme is feeding a steady stream of high-level expertise into the continent's SET system that will help Africa push the boundaries of radio astronomy and related sciences and technologies.

"The SKA represents an unrivalled opportunity in Africa for high-level capacity building in telecommunications, imaging technology, receiver technology, high speed computing, antenna engineering, space physics and advanced computation," said Dr Bernie Fanaroff, SA SKA project director.

The decision was taken in 2004 to increase the number of PhD and MSc graduates in radio astronomy as part of Africa's bid to host the SKA site.

The SKA Youth into Science and Engineering Programme was initiated in 2005. The programme offers comprehensive bursaries to students in engineering, physics and astronomy at undergraduate and postgraduate level. To date close to 100 postgraduate students, 29 honours students and about 40 undergraduate students are studying or have studied with SKA bursaries and are on their way to being a part of South Africa's exciting future in radio astronomy. Forty of these students are from other African countries.

"The highly skilled young scientists and engineers supported by this programme will serve South Africa - and our African partner countries - in key areas of economic development in addition to their participation in 'blue skies' scientific research," said Kim de Boer, SKA human capital development manager.

"Prior to 2008 the focus was on PhD and MSc students, but since 2008 we've included undergraduate students in order to increase the pool of potential students and attract more of them into astronomy and the relevant engineering disciplines," de Boer said. The undergraduate programme focuses particularly on attracting more black and women students.

Students find the innovative nature of astronomy and the SKA project exciting. In her keynote address to mark the opening of the SKA's Annual Bursary and Fellowship Conference in Stellenbosch on December 2, the Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor stated that the excitement and challenges of astronomy and space science are already attracting some of South Africa's best students.

"The South African SKA project's Human Capital Development programme has a deliberate focus on capacity development, and this has been recognised internationally as unique and highly successful," she said. "Heads of astronomy departments and radio astronomy engineering facilities around the world have commented on the high quality of research being done by the postgraduate students and academic staff working with the MeerKAT team," she added.

"SKA bursaries are competitive and on a par with bursaries offered by industry or by other countries," de Boer stated. Bursary holders attend regular workshops, where they get valuable exposure to optical and radio-astronomy. They also benefit from student conferences, where they interact with the world's leading astronomers, the local astronomy community and the SKA engineering and science team.

"The annual conference, being held this year from 2-7 December in Stellenbosch, serves to create a sense of community among students and researchers involved in the SKA project," de Boer said.

The conference also serves to boost the presentation and communication skills of the SKA fraternity as students, postdoctoral fellows, supervisors and the SKA team, as well as international radio astronomers present on their current research.

This is the fourth year that the Annual Bursary and Fellowship Conference is being held. The five-day conference at Stellenbosch will be attended 38 postgraduate students, six postdoctoral fellows and university supervisors, academics from some of the SKA African partners' state universities, the SKA team and international guests.

The student presentations are judged by their peers and the top six projects are awarded prizes. At the past three conferences, the student presentations elicited a very favourable response from visiting international scientists, who rated the quality of the students' work as comparable with the best to be found internationally. "I'm convinced that the standard of the students' work is boosting South Africa's reputation as a hub for astronomy, as well as strengthening our position in the SKA bid," Fanaroff said.

International astronomers that will be presenting at this year's conference include Dr Andrew Faulkner - University of Cambridge, Prof Tony Brown - University of Manchester, Prof Daniel Joseph Pisano - University of West Virginia, Dr Matt Jarvis - University of Hertfordshire, Dr Somanah Radhakrishna - Mauritius Radio Telescope, Prof Marc Verheijen - University of Groningen, Dr Lister Staveley-Smith - International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Perth, and Dr Girish Kumar Beeharry - University of Mauritius. The students come from universities all over South Africa.

At the SKA Forum which was held in Cape Town in February this year, Professor John Womersley of the Science and Technology Facilities Council in the UK stated that the world's current and future challenges demand scientific thinkers and technological innovation. "The quickest way to get out of the economic dilemmas is to be able to evolve scientifically and that requires a scientifically trained workforce," Womersley explained, adding that only 20 - 30% of astronomy is about understanding the universe. "The rest is about training people."

At the same Forum Dr Gill Marcus, Reserve Bank Governor, said that she was convinced that the telescope would give young Africans a sense of purpose and inspire them to pursue maths and science at school, and to follow careers in science and engineering. This would create a critical mass of problem-solving thinkers, able to find solutions to the water, food, health, energy and environmental challenges of the continent.

In her address Minister Pandor thanked all the students, postdoctoral fellows and the supervisors for "boosting South Africa's reputation internationally".

Keynote address

Read the keynote address of the Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor.