This workshop will discuss how the techniques and technologies being used and developed in radio astronomy to handle the big data aspects of the field can be applied to other fields in industry and commerce to generate economic development in LMIC countries. It will be hosted at NARIT in Thailand where researchers are already involved in several big data initiatives. Experts will be invited from the UK, Australia, South Africa and Colombia among others. This workshop will provide an opportunity to bring together these separate projects and share the experiences so far and discuss new directions for collaboration across continents. It will also be an opportunity for countries who are just beginning to develop radio astronomy to be exposed to the development possibilities in this sphere.
This is one of the four DRAGN (Development through Radio Astronomy Global Network) workshops being organized during 2018 - 2019, funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF).
About DRAGN (https://dragn.info)
Four international workshops will be held throughout 2019 to build partnerships between the various projects in development through radio astronomy that have already been established via the Newton Fund in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia. This collaboration will form a global network of expertise in the mobilization of radio astronomy for economic development. The network will establish and build ‘south-south’ connections that will help the sharing of experiences and lessons learned in how to translate the high tech skills of radio astronomy into local job creation and entrepreneurship. Other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the three continental regions not currently involved will be encouraged to join the established activities and build strong regional collaborations around this theme. The workshops are fully funded by an award from the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund. Hence the cost of all participants including travel, accommodation and subsistence will be covered by the project. About 40 participants including expert speakers are expected at each event and these will mostly be by invitation. The UK institutions that are organising these events along with the workshop host institutions below are the University of Leeds, University of Hertfordshire, University of Manchester, University of Oxford, University of Bristol and University of Central Lancashire. A summary of the four workshops follows.
