AfricaConnect Meeting and Workshop on IoT-Based Acquisition of Research Data for Scientific Computing

21 Oct 2024, 08:30 → 25 Oct 2024, 17:00 Africa/Accra

Italy

Clement Onime (ICTP), Omo Oaiya (WACREN)

This event in Trieste will build on the successes of the Accra (2023, 2024) and Ile-Ife (2024) IoT Workshops, expanding its impact on African climate scientists and IT engineers. At the Euro-Africa High-Level Meeting, WACREN, ICTP, and other key funders will engage with African and European researchers to explore deploying a regional climate data infrastructure, leveraging NREN infra and High-Performance Computing (HPC) centres, as part of the next phase of the AfricaConnect project.

Know more about this activity here - https://indico.ictp.it/event/10787 

Monday 21 October

09:15 → 09:30 Welcome message

Speaker: Prof. S. Scandolo (ICTP)

09:30 → 10:45 Overview/participants introduction

Speaker: Prof. Clement Onime (ICTP)

10:45 → 11:20 BREAK

11:20 → 12:30 IoT sensors kit for monitoring pollution of surface water bodies

Speaker: Prof. E. Pietrosemoli (ICTP)

12:30 → 13:30 LUNCH

13:30 → 14:30 Introduction to IoT

Speaker: Mr M. Zennaro (ICTP)

14:30 → 16:00 General introduction to Arduino programming

Speaker: Mr M. Baruzzo (ICTP)

16:00 → 16:30 BREAK

16:30 → 18:00 3D printing for rapid prototyping in environmental monitoring

Speaker: Mr C. Fonda (ICTP)

Tuesday 22 October

09:00 → 09:30 RECAP of Day 1

09:30 → 10:45 Introduction to IoT communications

Speaker: Prof. E. Pietrosemoli (ICTP)

10:45 → 11:15 BREAK

11:15 → 12:30 Introduction to MQTT protocol

Speaker: Dr R. Paškauskas (ICTP)

12:30 → 13:30 LUNCH

13:30 → 14:30 Introduction to IoT gateways

Speaker: Dr R. Paškauskas (ICTP)

14:30 → 16:00 Hands-on: Installing an IoT platform for MQTT data collection

Speaker: Prof. Clement Onime (ICTP)

16:00 → 16:20 BREAK

16:20 → 17:50 Hands-on: From sensors to gateway to IoT platforms

Speakers: Prof. Clement Onime (ICTP), Dr R. Paškauskas (ICTP)

Wednesday 23 October

09:00 → 09:30 Recap of Day 2

09:30 → 10:45 Advance tasks and exercise on IoT platforms: high availability, data archival and extracting data from archival DB

Speaker: Prof. Clement Onime (ICTP)

10:45 → 11:15 BREAK

11:15 → 12:30 Powering IoT sensors, kits and gateways

Speaker: Prof. E. Pietrosemoli (ICTP)

12:30 → 13:30 LUNCH

13:30 → 14:30 Introduction to tinyML

Speaker: Prof. M. Zennaro (ICTP)

14:30 → 16:00 Basic Data Science: Introduction and best practices, data protection and ethical use of data

Speaker: Mr S. Gizaw (ICTP)

16:00 → 16:30 BREAK

16:30 → 18:00 Hands-on: Working with data: cleanup, deduplication & scaling

Speaker: Prof. Clement Onime (ICTP)

Thursday 24 October

09:00 → 09:30 Recap of Day 3

09:30 → 10:45 Hands-on: Working with data: tools for graphing, A.I models

Speaker: Prof. Clement Onime (ICTP)

10:45 → 11:15 BREAK

11:15 → 12:30 Introduction to Machine Learning and neural networks

Speaker: Prof. Clement Onime (ICTP)

12:30 → 14:00 LUNCH

14:00 → 16:15 AfricaConnect High-level Meeting: Empowering Climate Research: Enhancing NREN Infrastructure, Regional Collaboration, and Open Data

AfricaConnect High-level meeting on broader participation and opportunities for enhancing regional infrastructure for data acquisition and scientific computing.

In the second part of this session, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) will explore with participants collective funding models and approaches to center and support African climate data and infrastructure needs. The session will showcase learnings from IOI’s engagement in Africa and experience in coordinating multi-stakeholder funds, and explore intersections with current needs from research communities served through the AfricaConnect program and beyond.

Convener: Omo Oaiya (Chief Strategy Officer, WACREN)

14:00 AfricaConnect and NREN Infrastructure for Climate

Speaker: Omo Oaiya (WACREN)

AfricaConnect and NREN Infrastructure for Climate.pdf

14:20 Leveraging Regional Climate Data for Actionable Research: WASCAL’s Role in Strengthening NREN Collaboration and Climate Resilience in West Africa

Speaker: Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi (Research Director, WASCAL)

14:40 Advancing Earth Observation for Climate Research: AfriGEO’s Vision for Strengthening Data Sharing and Regional Collaboration

Speaker: Ken Kasera (Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) /AfriGEO Secretariat)

AfriGEO Trieste - Presentation Oct2024.pdf

15:00 Group Discussion

15:45 Networking break

16:15 → 18:00 AfricaConnect High-level Meeting: Co-designing funding for climate research data infrastructure in Africa

AfricaConnect High-level meeting on broader participation and opportunities for enhancing regional infrastructure for data acquisition and scientific computing.

In the second part of this session, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) will explore with participants collective funding models and approaches to center and support African climate data and infrastructure needs. The session will showcase learnings from IOI’s engagement in Africa and experience in coordinating multi-stakeholder funds, and explore intersections with current needs from research communities served through the AfricaConnect program and beyond.

Convener: Kaitlin Thaney (Executive Director, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI))

16:15 Welcome and framing

16:25 Building a landscape view of climate data infrastructure needs in Africa

Speakers: Kaitlin Thaney (Executive Director, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI)), Omo Oaiya (WACREN)

IOI_AfricaConnect_HL_Trieste2024.pdf

17:05 Exploring funding models and sources

17:55 Conclusion

Next steps on working together, building an understanding and shaping a climate fund

Friday 25 October

09:00 → 09:30 Recap of day 4

09:30 → 10:30 Forum discussion on open data: Publishing and sharing data

Speaker: All participants (WACREN & ICTP)

10:30 → 11:30 Forum Discussion: Addressing IoT security multi-layers

Speaker: All participants

11:30 → 12:30 Feedback session and closing remarks

Speaker: All participants