24 - 25 October 2018 Italy-South Africa Radio Astronomy Workshop

Enhancing the collaboration in radio-astronomy between Italy and South Africa NRF – Albert Luthuli Auditorium – Pretoria

PROGRAMME DAY 1

8:00-9:00 Registration 9:00-9:10 Introduction: Mr. Daan du Toit – Deputy Director General, Department of Science

and Technology 9:10-10:00 Formal opening

Dr. Phil Mjwara – Director General, Department of Science and Technology Prof. Lorenzo Fioramonti – Vice Minister of Education, University and Research Prof. Bernie Fanaroff – Former Project Director, SKA South Africa Prof. Nichi D’Amico – President, Italian National Institute of Astrophysics

Session 1 Added value of industrial partnership Facilitator Pierguido Sarti 10:00-11:00 30’ - Carla Sharpe (SARAO) – SKA, SARAO and industrial partnerships: Maximizing

socio economic benefit from Radio astronomy 30’ - Corrado Perna (Industrial Liaison Office INAF) – INAF and Industrial Partnerships

11:00-11:20 Coffee Break 11:20-12:15 20’ - Isak Theron (EMSS Antennas) - The role of SA industry in designing and building

the next generation radio astronomy feeds for MeerKAT and SKA 20’ - Gianpietro Marchiori (EIE) – From ALMA to SKA and beyond; 15’ - Grazia Umana (INAF-OA Catania) - Lessons being learned from the SKA Dish consortium.

12:15-13:20 Lunch Session 2 SKA data challenges and Big Data Facilitator Roger Deane 13:20-14:40 30’ - Russ Taylor (IDIA/UCT/UWC) - Big Data Challenges, the IDIA Cloud and the ILIFU

Project 30’ - Riccardo Smareglia (INAF-OA Trieste) - INAF plans on HPC, Cloud and Big Data 20’ - Gyula Jósza (SARAO/Rhodes) - The MeerKATHI Pipeline

14:40-15:00 Coffee Break 15:00-16:00 20’ - Ugo Becciani : Big Astro-Science. HPC and software solutions

20’ Mattia Vaccari (IDIA/UWC) - Multi-Wavelength Data Fusion & Machine Learning Challenges 20’ - Lucia Marchetti (UCT/UWC) - The Data2Dome Initiative at the Iziko Planetarium and the IDIA Visualisation Lab

Moderator Grazia Umana, Russ Taylor 16:00-16:45 Panel Discussion / Q&A 18:00-20:00 Reception at the Italian Residence hosted by HE Pietro Giovanni Donnici

PROGRAMME DAY 2 Session 3 Joint Human Capital Development initiatives in Radio-Astronomy Facilitator Carla Sharpe 09:00-11:00 30’ - Kim de Boer (SARAO) - Relevance of human capital development in South Africa

- Status and initiatives 15’ - Gianni Bernardi (INAF-IRA) - The growth of the new generation of South African astronomers in the pre-SKA era 15’ - Marta Spinelli (INAF – OATs) – Mocking the SKA HI surveys 15’ - Mpati Ramatsoku (INAF – OACa) – MeerKAT projects. HI synergies between Italy and South Africa 15’ - Federico Abbate (INAF – OACa) – Inrternal gas models and central black hole in 47 Tucanae using millisecond pulsars 15’ - Beatrice Terni de' Gregory (INAF-IRA/OATs) – The Radio CLASH GCAV project: radio galaxy evolution and diffuse radio emission from an EGMRT selected sample of galaxy clusters 15’ – Marisa Brienza (INAF - IRA) – Search and modelling of remnant radio galaxies at 150 MHz with LOFAR

11:00-11:20 Coffee Break Session 4 AVN and related Italian-South African activities Facilitator Tiziana Venturi 11:20-12:40 20’ - Justin Jonas (SARAO) - MeerKAT Update & Opportunities for VLBI Science

20’ - Mariet Venter (SARAO) - AVN: current status, prospects and role of the Italian-South African partnership 20’ - Pietro Bolli (INAF-OA Arcetri) - Analysis of the optics of the antenna in Ghana: The Italian-South African combined effort 20’ - James Chibueze (SARAO) - VLBI Science with the AVN: Unique Cases and Capabilities

12:40-13:40 Lunch 13:40-15:20 20’ - Cristina Garcia Miro' (SKAO) - VLBI and SKA: status and perspectives

20’ - Roger Deane (UP) - Survey-driven radio astronomy expands its reach: wide-field VLBI science and techniques enroute to the SKA 20’ - Marcello Giroletti (INAF-IRA) - Italian VLBI Network, AVN and VLBI in the era of the SKA: current status and prospects for an integration of the arrays 20’ - Aletha de Witt (SARAO) - Fundamental Astronomy at HartRAO: Astrometric and Geodetic VLBI observations to improve the Celestial Reference Frame 20’ - Paolo Serra/Andrea Possenti (INAF-OA Cagliari) - Prospects and feasibility of joint observations between MeerKAT and the Sardinia Radio Telescope

15:20-15:40 Coffee Break Moderator Mariet Venter, Gianni Bernardi 15:40-16:00 Panel Discussion / Q&A 16:00-17:00 Round Table and Plenary Discussion

Bernie Fanaroff, Justin Jonas, Tiziana Venturi, Kim de Boer, Corrado Perna, Pierguido Sarti, Grazia Umana

17:00 Closing remarks