Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy
A joint UK-South Africa Newton Fund human capital development project
to help drive economic development in Africa.
This project aims to develop high tech skills using radio astronomy in a number of African countries. Radio astronomy encompasses all of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills that underpin the emergence of a strong developed economy. The modern astronomer needs knowledge in physics, mathematics, chemistry and computing. To develop, maintain and run radio telescopes and instrumentation requires key skills in technology and engineering. The targeted countries will be acquiring radio telescopes to form the African VLBI Network as part of their participation in the South African Square Kilometre Array project. We aim to inspire and train a new and diverse generation of young people to engage with these skills. Our training programme engenders a research ethos as well as communication and diagnostic skills that are transferable to many aspects of a developing economy. The training team includes experienced entrepreneurs from the space sector to open the minds of the trainees to the possibilities in the industrial and commercial sectors. This Newton Fund programme will provide a pool of talented young people who have been inspired by astronomy to play a leading role in the emergence of new economies.

South Africa

South Africa

South Africa

South Africa
News
Why Kenya should not abandon the Longonot satellite
A space science project in Africa in opening up new horizons
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Prof Melvin Hoare is Driving Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy
Two great minds assisting Ghana's economic growth - DARA & DARA Big Data PhD students win a STFC IAA to fund a project to build capacity for big data management for Ghana’s developing economy
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Observing the Milky Way with a Table-Top Radio Telescope - Part 2
Speaker: Prof Peter Wilkinson
9 December 2020
Speaker: Prof Anna Scaife
University of Manchester, UK
24 November 2020
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Astronomy at Low Frequencies: Prospects of the
LOFAR System
Speaker: Dr. Bernard Duah Asabere
ASTRON in The Netherlands & GSSTI in Ghana
7 October 2020
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Resources
Essential Radio Astronomy
Online book - a fantastic free learning recourse from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Training
POSTPONED: Annual Network Meeting 2020: May 2020
South Africa
The 2020 annual network meeting will take place in Muldersdrift near Johannesburg, South Africa. ​DARA invites its UK, SA and African partners to the meeting, together with the advanced training trainees and the 2019-20 basic training programme trainees.
Basic Training Unit 1 in Madagascar
17 - 27 February 2020
University of Antananarivo
Eleven Malagasy students from the Universite d’Antananarivo and the Ecole Normale Superior recently completed their training at the Institut et Observatorie de Geophysique d’Antananarivo (IOGA).
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