Andean Region

  • CAP2016 was hosted in Colombia last June. It was very productive in terms of presenting the Andean ROAD to the community.
  • In June 2016 (during CAP2016) the 4 Andean ROAD coordinators had a meeting with Rosa Doran (Portuguese LOAD) to start planning collaboration.
  • In June 2016 (during CAP2016) The TF2 coordinator received the Quality Lighting Teaching Kit.
  • In September 2016 we will have our first TF2 Andean Meeting in Peru.
  • In October 2016 LARIM will host one afternoon dedicated to an Astronomy for Development mini-workshop. Ram will represent the OAD.
  • In 2017 Peru will host the next Andean School of Astrophysics and Astronomy.

East Asia and Chinese Language

  • Beijing Planetarium outreach
  efforts.
  • Yunnan and Shanghai Observatories lecture programs
  • PKU/KIAA work with children of migrant families (Fun with Physics,
  monthly events)
  • lecture programme in English co-sponsored by the
  EA-ROAD
  • 4 June 2016: 12th Day of Public Outreach in China; Yunnan
  Observatory invited Thijs Kouwenhoven (EA_ROAD steering committee
  member) to be involved and give a special lecture
  • Lighting Kit: coordination will be taken over by Wenwen Zuo,
  Shanghai Observatory
  • Richard de Grijs facilitated (as one of 20 facilitators) a large
  online course (MOOC) in Research Writing (April-May 2016; AuthorAID,
  3000 participants from developing countries)

South West and Central Asia

  • IAU SWA ROAD Director Areg Mickaelian and BAO Scientific Secretary Elena Nikoghosyan visited three Central Asian countries with developed astronomy/astrophysics, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to renovate former contacts and collaboration and establish new possible collaborations and projects
  • Visits to high-altitude observatories and stations, as well as seminars, discussions and informal meetings were accomplished.
  • At present entering of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to IAU South West Asian ROAD is being actively discussed and a big project on digitization of plate archives in all these countries and creation of national virtual observatories is in preparation.
  • Kazakhstan and Tajikistan joined our ROAD. After our visit to Central Asian countries and official invitation, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan joined our ROAD in June 2016.
  • “Astronomical Heritage in the Armenian Highland” Young Scientists Conference was organized on 20-23.06.2016 in Yerevan, Armenia.
  • In frame of the OAD funded project “Astro Tourism in South West Asia” we have accomplished a number of visits to Scientific Tourism centres, including those in Georgia. A dedicated webpage is in preparation.

 

Southern Africa

  • The regional office received an education kit from the National Optical Astronomical Observatory of the USA for quality lighting education for schools.
  • Education program is being rolled out to Mukuba Secondary School and Ndola Girls National Technical School on pilot basis.
  • The inaugural chairman of the steering committee, Prof. Franck Tailoka has been replaced by Dr. Ng’andwe Mumba who has become Dean of the school.
  • A Regional Coordinator (Prospery Simpemba) was officially appointed by the university in April 2016 and will be in office for a term of two years.

West Africa

  • June 9th 2016, outreach activities with the universe in the box.
  • May 28 – July 14, 2016 Quality hangout with Julie (training on the use of tool)
  • Start planning for the 2017 Astronomy summer school in Ghana. Series of skype meetings is being held.
  • Planning for September Eclipse of the Sun has started.
  • Training of postgraduate students on how to use CASA Software for Radio Astronomy research.
  • Participated in the celebration of world asteroid day on June 30, 2016.