Focus on Pawsey
As the recommendation of a preferred site for the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) looms closer, we focus on the Pawsey Centre Project - a world class facility with the potential to support one of the greatest science projects ever undertaken.
In 2009 the Australian Government, as part of its Super Science initiative, allocated $80 million towards the establishment of the Pawsey Centre with the primary aim of hosting new supercomputing facilities and expertise to support SKA research and other high-end science.
The secondary goal of the Project is to demonstrate Australia’s ability to deliver and support world-class advanced ICT infrastructure and therefore strengthen Australia’s bid to host the SKA, which is critically dependant on advanced ICT.
In a recent announcement, anzSKA project director Brian Boyle said "2012 will be a momentous year for the SKA" project.
He also said "the ANZSCC believes that there are clear grounds for differentiation between the sites and that Australia and New Zealand is the best site for the SKA. Siting the SKA in Australia and New Zealand would maximise science outcomes while minimising risk. Australia and New Zealand would provide simplicity and stability to one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, science infrastructure projects of the 21st century."
The Pawsey Centre Project will have the capacity to host new supercomputing facilities and other expertise to provide immediate support to the Australian SKA Pathfinder and Murchison Widefield Array radio astronomy telescopes as well as other high-end research areas of computational and data-intensive science, particularly nanotechnology, biotechnology and geosciences.
The SKA is one of the largest scientific projects undertaken anywhere in the world, with the international SKA project community expecting to make a decision on its location (Australia - New Zealand or southern Africa) in 2012. The Pawsey Centre will comprise a purpose-built building, housing a petascale supercomputing system and associated works at Kensington, Western Australia.
It will be constructed on CSIRO-owned land adjacent to the CSIRO’s existing Australian Resources Research Centre facility at Technology Park, Bentley, which is located approximately six kilometres from Perth’s CBD. The Project also encompasses infrastructure housed at iVEC@Murdoch and iVEC@UWA. iVEC is encouraging and energising research in, and the uptake of, supercomputing, large scale data storage and visualisation in Western Australia.
This is achieved by making available facilities and expertise to the research, education and industrial communities. Application areas include nanotechnology, radioastronomy, high energy physics, medical and mining training, medical research, mining and petroleum, architecture and construction, multimedia, and urban planning.
The Pawsey Centre is named after internationally recognised radio astronomer Dr Joseph Lade Pawsey (1908-1962), considered to be a founding father of Australian radio astronomy.
Content courtesy of iVEC and anzSKA.
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