NICIS joins 15-year celebration of the South Africa-European Organisation for Nuclear Research Celebration

The National Integrated Cyberinfrastructure System (NICIS) recently joined the SA-European Organisation for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) 15-year celebration at Ithemba Labs. The CSIR has become a full participant in the international experiment ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) through NICIS. The centre provided an overview of the collaboration between CERN/Alice and NICIS.

NICIS brings expertise and resources in high-performance computing, large-scale data storage and highspeed bandwidth to the project. ALICE is designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities. To support this, CERN relies on purpose-built high-performance computing infrastructure, large-scale storage and high-speed connectivity services provided by a global network of high-performance cluster node facilities. NICIS is committed to enhancing ALICE’s computational capabilities and enabling faster data processing and analysis by providing the only tier-two high-performance computing node in Africa.

The Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI) has shown interest in pursuing Associate Membership with CERN. This decision will be guided by an initial evaluation and assessment report to explore South Africa’s potential contributions and strategic benefits. Furthermore, the CHPC will explore formal membership in the ATLAS experiment, mirroring the successful model established with ALICE.

The two-day event featured high-level talks and reflections on the SA-CERN consortium including a keynote address by the Deputy Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation, Ms Nomalungelo Gina, and presentations from key stakeholders and leading physicists.