New UCT laboratory to see the universe
THE Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (Idia) has launched a new visualisation facility at UCT for astronomers from around the country to explore their data and find answers to some of the biggest questions about the universe.
The facility will be important in understanding data with the ongoing development of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) – an international effort to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope in South Africa and Australia.
The SKA will create data at a pace faster than global internet traffic, so these datasets cannot be analysed on a normal desktop computer.
To cope with the challenges presented by the SKA and its precursor projects, including the MeerKAT array in the Northern Cape, scientists need new ways to engage with these large volumes of data.
The Idia Visualisation Laboratory, launched in February, now gives astronomers the ability to find patterns in their data by viewing it visually.
Idia director and SKA research chair in radio astronomy at UCT and UWC Professor Russ Taylor said visualisation of information presents one of the biggest challenges in the era of big-data astronomy.
“We have these datasets which are very rich and large, and different to the kinds of datasets we have traditionally worked with,” Taylor said.
“Researchers don’t want to look at little bits of big data. We want to look at as much of the data as we can and at a full resolution to get the big picture.”
The new visualisation laboratory boasts innovative devices, including a grid of four TV screens, affectionately known as Walie – the Wide Area Large Interactive Explorer – that allows researchers to look at large datasets in high definition; a curved 1.8-metre panorama display in which a researcher can sit and experience their data in an interactive environment; a virtual reality platform enabling researchers to become one with the data in a three-dimensional space.
This will enable developers and researchers to work together to develop the technology to support big-data research, and provide a platform to test, experiment and build new software systems.
This will be particularly important when the MeerKAT array expands to its full-scale of operations this year.
The goal is for developers and information technologists to work with research teams so that each field informs the other, and results in an effective strategy for processing – in South Africa, rather than abroad – the data from the MeerKAT and SKA telescopes.
The other purpose of the new visualisation laboratory is to provide a facility for Idia researchers from UCT, UWC, North West University and the University of Pretoria to work with and experience their data in an immersive environment.