The conference will start at 11:00 UTC on September 24, 2020.
Link to YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEs8fQyo8fI
As emerging economies, the BRICS countries face a specific set of challenges, but are also uniquely placed to act on the opportunities that the fourth industrial revolution presents. At the 5th annual BRICS Astronomy Working Group (BAWG) meeting held in 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, representatives from the BRICS countries, based on input from their astronomical communities, agreed to develop a Flagship project taking advantage of the combined scientific, technological and engineering expertise of the BRICS member states to meet these challenges and provide a world-class facility for astronomical research.
The BRICS Intelligent Telescope and Data Network (BITDN) is a collaborative scientific enterprise, drawing on the strengths of all five BRICS partners, while at the same time seeking to address in-country socioeconomic development challenges. The Flagship scientific programme will develop a network of astronomical telescopes, some already existing, and an associated intelligent data network which is the enabler for the science programme. This will leverage existing and planned new telescope and cyber facilities within the BRICS countries and will also draw on the opportunities presented by other multi-wavelength space- and ground-based facilities within, or accessed by, the BRICS countries.
Thanks to their unique, worldwide geographical distribution, BRICS countries are well placed to take a global lead in the rapidly expanding domain of wide-field multi-wavelength imaging sky surveys and the detection and study of transient and time-variable phenomena in the Universe, as well as technical solutions to the associated enormous Big Data and Big Compute challenges. This ambitious plan for a global network of optical telescopes, with the unprecedented ability to observe the entire sky continuously on a timescale of less than an hour, will greatly increase our ability to monitor the changing cosmos.
The 6th annual BRICS Astronomy Workshop will be held virtually, hosted by the Ural Federal University in Russia. In a series of talks over a course of three hours, the BITDN project will be presented to the worldwide community by the co-PIs, covering the scientific aims, technological solutions and societal benefits of the Flagship project. Participation in the workshop is open to all, and Q&A opportunities will be provided after each presentation.
The Workshop will be held from 11:00-14:00 UTC on September 24, 2020 via Zoom, with access also available via YouTube. Audience participants in the workshop are requested to register with the organizers by 23:59, September 23 to insure that they receive the conference credentials (Zoom) in a timely manner.
Overview of the BRICS Intelligent Telescope and Data Network
~4 MB, *.pdf (Uploaded 16.09.2020)
Created / Updated: 14 September 2020 / 24 September 2020