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Workshops in this program have been held in Brazil (2001), India (2003), Beijing
(2004), South Africa (2004), and Morocco (2005). The sixth and seventh workshops
in the series, all designed around
the same general concepts, will be held in Romania and Uruguay, respectively,
in 2007. The workshops are intended to enhance the scientific capability of
developing countries, and have been held in collaboration with various international
bodies and agencies, including IAU, ICSU, UN/OOSA, ESA, NASA and several others.
Proposals for new workshops can be made at any time through the National Representatives
of COSPAR members, or directly to the Executive Director of COSPAR, Dr I Revah,
or to the Chair of the Panel on Capacity Building, Professor Peter Willmore
(apw@star.sr.bham.ac.uk). For
further details, see below, and the Web sites of workshops, e.g.,
- Workshop N° 1: Brazil,
2001 - X-ray Astronomy
- Workshop N° 3: China, 2004 - Magnetospheric Physics
- Workshop N° 4: South Africa, 2004 - X-ray Astronomy
- Workshop N° 7: Uruguay, 2007 - Planetary Sciences
Objectives
The workshops are intended to enhance the
scientific capability of developing countries by meeting the following objectives:
(i)
to increase knowledge and use of
public archives of space data in order both to broaden the scope of research
programmes in developing countries and also to ensure that scientists in them
are aware of the full range of facilities which are available to them and
which are also used by scientists in the developed countries,
(ii)
to provide highly-practical instruction
in the use of these archives and the associated publicly-available software
so that participants on returning home can readily incorporate them into their
research programmes, and
(iii)
to foster personal links between
participants and experienced scientists attending the workshops to contribute
to reducing the isolation often experienced by scientists in developing countries.
The individual scientists who participate, and the scientific and
wider communities of which they are a part will be the prime beneficiaries of
this programme, but the value of a real scientific participation in
high-profile space missions for countries which cannot themselves build space
hardware should also not be under-estimated. The data analysis phase of nearly
all space missions is effort-limited so the missions themselves will also benefit
from the greater participation that will result.
Furthermore, since the advanced tools in
data analysis required for such studies are becoming increasingly important
also in many other fields, e.g., engineering, business, and finance, one can
expect international data analysis projects to have significant spin-off
effects for the nations whose young scientists take part.
The
Workshop Programme
The workshop programmes are carefully tailored to contribute to achieving
these objectives. The scientific topic is related to one or more major space
missions which are currently producing important new results and which also
have both substantial public archives of data and use publicly-available processing
and analysis software, all easily accessible through the internet. In the
workshops held so far, the topics have been X-ray astronomy, based on the
Chandra and XMM-Newton missions, and magnetospheric physics, based on the
Cluster mission, both of which fully meet all these criteria.
The target participant is a
final-year postgraduate student, a young post-doc or faculty member, or a more
senior scientist working in conditions leading to isolation from the active
scientific community. In order that the programme can be organised as
effectively as possible, the workshops will usually be arranged on a regional
basis so that the background of, and the problems encountered by, participants
will have some degree of homogeneity. This also enables some flexibility to be
deployed in interpreting the “target participant” in order to meet local
conditions. For example, it may be advantageous to include some final-year
undergraduates in some regions.
The computing requirements then
require that the workshop be held either in a well-equipped space centre or
possibly a university in the region. It is important to demonstrate to
participants the feasibility of carrying out practical studies in an
environment which is directly relevant to their future work, rather than, for
example, in Europe or the USA.
The time spent in the workshop
is about equally divided between lectures and practical computing sessions. The
lectures cover both the cutting-edge science of the missions, the use of the
analysis software and also some necessary background in data processing and
analysis theory, insofar as this may be specific to the area of science
involved. The lectures must be tailored to the expected background of the target
participant and are closer to graduate student courses than to research
seminars.
The practical computing sessions
commence with setting up the analysis system on the participants’ computer
(each participant is provided with a computer for the duration of the
workshop), followed by instruction in initial stages of the data-processing.
This ensures that when they return home they will be able to set up a working
system with minimal support. Each participant is encouraged to come with a
proposed project topic. The remainder of the practical sessions is devoted to
carrying out this project, using archival data. One of the workshop lecturers
is assigned to each project as an advisor or supervisor for the duration of the
workshop—though the links thus forged may endure after it. The final session of
the workshop consists of a poster session at which the outcome of each project
is described. If possible, it has been found very useful to combine projects
into teams of two or three people—the progress made in the limited time
available is often increased more than pro
rata. The ideal project topic is one which is related to the participants’
current research, on which a useful start can be made during the workshop and
which can be the basis for substantial research after returning home.
Funding
A major contribution to the
workshop cost will be made by COSPAR, but in addition COSPAR looks for a
funding partnership with other scientific unions and international agencies.
Finally, a significant contribution form the host country, amounting to US$
10,000-15,000 is normally necessary.
Practical
Requirements for the Workshop
Experience has shown that the
technical demands of the computing laboratory and its associated network are
considerable and must not be underestimated. In addition the instruction in
computing and also the project supervision both make considerable demands on
the instructors. For these reasons, the maximum number of participants (i.e. “students” as distinct from
instructors or lecturers) is about 25.
The computing laboratory (or
laboratories) must therefore provide 25 PCs (plus a few spares) and appropriate
server(s), linked by a local network with a bandwidth of at least 10 Mb/s, and
with a good internet connection. Considerable numbers of file transfers of 100
MB files will occur, especially near the start of the workshop.
The detailed requirements will
depend on the missions on which the workshop is based, but the following can be
used as a guide. The PCs need to have a processor speed of at least 300 MHz,
256 MB memory and 15 GB of hard disc space. A LINUX operating system such as
Red Hat v7.2 should be used.
Each laboratory (if there is
more than one) needs to have a computer-driven projector for the instruction
sessions and one or two colour printers operating under LINUX.
A lecture theatre with a
capacity of at least 35 will also be needed; this too should have a
computer-driven projector and, if possible, internet access.
A room where the lecturers can
sit and work, with two or three PCs with internet access for their use, is also
highly desirable.
All the participants and lecturers
(say 35 in total) should be accommodated in one location, to a standard which
ensures that all will be comfortable given local climatic conditions, with
convenient coach or other transport to the centre where the workshop will
be held.
Last update of this page on 28 December 2006.
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