Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) President and CEO, Dr Sibusiso Sibisi
Scholars from our universities and science councils
Distinguished guests
Students
Ladies and gentlemen
South Africa devotes 10,5% of its research and development (R&D) expenditure to information and communications technology (ICT). This is small when compared with the 30% or more spent by most Organisations for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
So the Department of Science and Technology (DST) developed a plan with a focus on ICT. In 2007, together with expert domestic and international advisers, the Department of Science and Technology developed an ICT Research and Development and Innovation Strategy for South Africa.
The strategy is aimed at building research capacity in key ICT domains, developing skilled human resources, and establishing a strong and robust innovation chain. The implementation of the strategy is well under way, enabled by a strategic funding programme led by the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The strategy builds on existing strengths and addresses current weaknesses in our system. Our strengths lie in our research councils that play an important bridging role between universities and industry, in our science and technology parks and incubators, in our extensive mobile phone network coverage and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that ranks among the 10 largest in the world, indicating scope for financing ICT R&D and innovation.
Our limited network infrastructure for science councils and universities has changed for the better with the launch of the new Seacom 17 000 kilometres under-sea fibre optic cable linking Africa to Europe and India. The department's ICT intervention aims for unlimited processing power, bandwidth and storage. In pursuit of excellence in world-class science, engineering and technology research, the Department of Science and Technology supports the development of world-class cyber-infrastructure.
The department's intervention aims for unlimited processing power, bandwidth and storage. These three aspects are catered for through the South African National Research Network, the Very Large Database initiative, and the Centre for High Performance Computing. The South African National Research Network runs parallel to the Centre for High Performance Computing.
It's a high speed network intended to connect research councils, research institutes within statutory bodies, government departments and universities throughout the country. It'll also connect all these centres at high speed to global research networks via connections to Géant in Europe, and possibly to Internet2's Abilene network in the United States of America. It's current capacity ranges from 0,5 to 10 gigabytes.
The Very Large Database complements the Centre for High Performance Computing through the effective duration of notably large databases in areas of environmental and climate change modelling, bioinformatics, medical sciences and astronomy. Since its inception in 2007, the Centre for High Performance Computing has engaged in a drive to build much needed capacity, training both academic and industrial users.
Starting with four flagship projects, which have expanded to 10 within two years, the Centre supports researchers in various scientific domains, including those relevant to socio-economic challenges like diseases, climate change and energy security. It's a step in the right direction, and South Africa can expect much more value from these initiatives. For example, a successful bid for the Square Kilometre Array depends on our demonstrated ability to capture and process the data from the radio telescope, and to disseminate it to the rest of the world in near real time.
We'll not be able to do this without functional cyber-infrastructure in the form of high performance computing, high-speed networks, secure and high performance storage, and competent personnel. The return on investment for cyber-infrastructure should not be measured only by counting the number of users on the system, but also by taking into account the secondary activities around the establishment of the infrastructure. We manage the Blue Gene, a large-scale computational facility, on behalf of Africa.
Last year we convinced the rest of the world that we could manage a large-scale computational facility on behalf of Africa, and the Blue Gene for Africa found its home in South Africa. Specific country-to-country co-operation agreements in cyber-infrastructure have been achieved with a number of countries that are willing to work with us in developing the technologies and sharing expertise.
We are gradually becoming a destination of choice for high performance computing, attracting some of the best minds in cyber-infrastructure from, for example, Brazil (high-speed Internet); India, Russia and the USA (high performance computing); and Egypt (the Blue Gene). The initiator of the Top 500 supercomputer list visited our country last year and participated in the annual Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) conference in Durban.
This year the creator of the benchmark tests for high performance computing will be offering courses here in South Africa. The expert (Professor Kunle Olekutun) who developed the Niagara microchip that played a major role in SUN Microsystems' high performance computing technology is here this morning, visiting South Africa to give a course in advanced computer engineering. These highly skilled visitors are just a few of the benefits our efforts have brought South Africa, and we expect many more.
We need to out-compute in order to out-compete.
The launch today is further proof of our intention to provide relevant state-of-the-art equipment for cutting-edge technology, and to compete with the rest of the world while taking a leading role in Africa.
The phase two hybrid machine is among the Top 500 supercomputers in the world and the fastest in Africa. It's a 30 teraflop per second machine. The physical infrastructure housing the machine shows our sensitivity to green computing. It is the first water-cooled system in the country, reducing the energy required for cooling requirements and taking the strain off our national grid.
Recently, the Russian president indicated his dissatisfaction with Russia's comparatively insignificant role in producing supercomputers and its technological reliance on Asia and the USA.
South Africa, too, is not where it could be in this area.
We need to link our infrastructure initiatives with a comprehensive strategy for developing in-house technology in areas from supercomputer components, to software development, to the integration of systems and the innovative utilisation of platforms.
The localisation of such expertise will rely on local and international private sector partnerships, and strategic collaborative agreements. We expect our investment in this hybrid system to be the catalyst for further growth, and to contribute to the development of a vibrant and sustainable high performance computing industry.
In closing
I am certain that in the next few years there will be substantial progress this direction, and I confidently expect our researchers to put South Africa on the map while helping our country overcome the many socio-economic challenges it faces.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
8 September 2009
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za)
