Towards SKA Construction: Updates from the SKA Project, including construction planning, procurement, MBIE's response and HPC vendor "astronomical activities". How can NZ sell to the SKA?

*2 Sergei is the Director of the Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research of AUT. 

Radio Astronomy from New Zealand perspectives: We live in a Golden Age of Astronomy. The Cosmos is a unique laboratory to study space, time, matter and energy, and even the Earth, to understand where we came from and where we go. New telescopes and radio telescopes have been or will be constructed on the ground or launched to orbit the Earth and Sun. Studying Astronomy is incredibly interesting, but can it be recommended as a practical pathway for future students? What role has New Zealand played in the beginning of Radio Astronomy and continues to play today? Professor Sergei Gulyaev will discuss the contribution of Radio Astronomy to science in general, as well as practical applications of scientific and technological advances in Radio Astronomy. Sergei will introduce New Zealand’s radio astronomical observatory, and talk about its contribution to space research and Earth sciences.

*3 Andrew is the Director of the NZ Alliance and the Director of HPC Research Laboratory of AUT

NZ and the SKA: Past, Present and Future: New Zealand has had a long involvement in the SKA Project. This talk will outline some of the past contributions made by the NZ SKA Alliance, current work that is underway in the Central Signal Processor and in the Science Data Processor, and briefly discuss upcoming stages for the Project as SKA1 construction approaches.

The trouble with scale: Everything about the SKA is blighted with the problems of scale.  This talk is about architecting applications, software and hardware infrastructure at a scale to manage a science project that needs to behave like a service, and not a one-off science experiment in order to meet it's demanding science objectives.  Treating the design, implementation and management of the Science Data Processing as a service resonates with delivering large scale business IT infrastructure and in this context there is much to share between both the science and business communities.

*6 TN is the Director of Compucon New Zealand

Impacts to New Zealand: MBIE recently released a discussion paper on why MBIE should invest in science research projects (such as SKA).  NZA is at the receiving end of investment and is obliged to address questions raised by the paper.  This session explains Compucon's work in SDP (Science Data Processor), its challenges, what Compucon has captured from the efforts, and how the knowledge can be converted into impacts to New Zealand.