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IDIA shines at the AFAS conference in Botswana 2026! Sally, Narusha, and Theo showcased IDIA to Hon. Shawn Ntlhaile, Assistant Minister in the Botswana Ministry of Communications and Innovation.

#afas2026

Hackathon has wrapped up its last day at the #AfAS2026. We look forward to seeing other participants next year at Rhodes University. The Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy, some of the participants, but we are not able to tag them.

Over 360 young South African astronomy graduate students have relied on IDIA’s world-class high-performance compute infrastructure and dedicated software support team, enabling great discoveries like Thato Manamela’s record-breaking cosmic laser!

Click here to read more about his incredible discovery:

https://idia.ac.za/2026/02/17/press-release-cosmic-laser/

https://idia.ac.za/empowering-the-next-generation-of-south-african-scientists-for-the-ska/

#scienceimpact #IDIA #SARAO #UniversityPretoria #MeerKAT

PRESS RELEASE: Using the MeerKAT radio telescope and advanced data processing pipelines, a UP/IDIA team led by Dr Thato Manamela has discovered the most distant, most luminous hydroxyl megamaser yet - a natural radio beacon from a galaxy merger more than 8 billion light-years away.
This discovery harnesses MeerKAT’s sensitivity and IDIA’s computational infrastructure to open a new frontier in the study of these cosmic lasers - and empower an early-career researcher to lead world-class science.
Click here to read the IDIA press release.

https://idia.ac.za/2026/02/17/press-release-cosmic-laser/

#IDIA #SARAO #RadioAstronomy #Science #UniversityPretoria pressrelease MeerKAT

Today, on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we celebrate all the incredible women at IDIA - our researchers, staff, and students.

Your dedication, leadership, and passion shape the future of science across Africa and beyond. Thank you for opening doors, inspiring others, and showing what’s possible.

#WomenInScience #IDIA #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience #WomenInSTEM

NEW DATA RELEASE! UNVEILING THE DEEP RADIO SKY WITH THE SUPERMIGHTEE PROJECT.

Read more here: https://idia.ac.za/2025/09/23/supermightee_datarelease1/

For more information about the release in Lal et al. 2025: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adf6dc

Click here for the SuperMIGHTEE DataRelease 1:
https://gateway.idia.ac.za/pages/supermigthee-dr1/

#IOPscience
#SuperMIGHTEE
#newrelease2025

🍾 🎉 Happy 10th Birthday, IDIA! 🎉 🍾

A decade ago, IDIA officially launched at the South African Astronomical Observatory. Cutting the celebratory cake on 3 Sept 2015 were (from left): Dr Bernie Fanaroff (SKA SA), Prof Tyrone Pretorius (UWC), Minister Naledi Pandor (DSTI), Prof Russ Taylor (IDIA), Dr Max Price (UCT), and Prof Frik van Niekerk (NWU).

Since then, we’ve been pushing the boundaries of data-intensive research. Here’s to the next 10 years of discovery, growth, and innovation!

#10years #10yearsbirthday #idia

This morning, IDIA’s Interim director Prof. Patrick Woudt opened the NSTF-proSET Discussion Forum on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in South Africa with a presentation on 4IR Advances in Astronomy and the work being conducted by IDIA.

Find out more about the 2-day NSTF Forum here: https://lnkd.in/dwzzUa4B

#NSTF
#NSTF-proSET
#4IR

This morning, IDIA’s Interim director Prof. Patrick Woudt opened the NSTF-proSET Discussion Forum on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in South Africa with a presentation on 4IR Advances in Astronomy and the work being conducted by IDIA.

Find out more about the 2-day NSTF Forum here: https://lnkd.in/dwzzUa4B

#NSTF
#NSTF-proSET
#4IR

This morning, IDIA’s Interim director Prof. Patrick Woudt opened the NSTF-proSET Discussion Forum on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in South Africa with a presentation on 4IR Advances in Astronomy and the work being conducted by IDIA.

Find out more about the 2-day NSTF Forum here: https://lnkd.in/dwzzUa4B

#NSTF
#NSTF-proSET
#4IR

🌍 Global Call: Data Science Trainer’s Hackathon 2024! 🌍

Calling all data science enthusiasts passionate about community development! Join us this October at WITS University in Johannesburg, South Africa. Selected teams will receive training to host regional hackathons at their institutions in early 2025.

📅 Applications open: June 18, 2024
📅 Applications close: July 15, 2024

Don’t miss this chance to make a global impact!
🔗 More details and apply: https://hack4dev.org/ds-trainer-hack-2024/

#DataScience #Hackathon #CommunityDevelopment #Hack4Dev #GlobalCall #DataScienceCommunity

Would you like to name a cool object in outer #space? Then suggest a name for a newly discovered 💥#Megamaser💥 and find out what it is: https://www.idia.ac.za/name-a-megamaser/
Names should be in one of South Africa’s 11 national languages and submissions are open until Heritage Day (24th)

Thinking of studying astronomy? Here are the different places where you can get first hand experience with telescopes and astronomy. No astro in your university of choice? No problem! Do physics and astro will be an option at Hons level and beyond. ⭐️💫

‪Highest energy from a gamma-ray burst observed⚡️‬
‪With the MeerKAT 📡, our researchers Prof. Woudt from @AstronomyUCT and @ReikantseoneD studied GRB190114C with an international team covering 17 orders of magnitude in energy! #multiwavelenth #RadioToTev ‬
‪https://www.idia.ac.za/discovery-of-the-highest-energy-light-from-a-gamma-ray-burst/‬