The "T" factor: how cloud computing can help save time in science and industry
When speaking about time in science, immediately the tedious months of work performed by scientists in laboratories come to our minds, with results being available only after years & years of cross-checking tests. Time is a non-manageable element in which scientists cannot intervene, but that has an influence on the research results. The discovery of new medical advancements or the understanding of how a molecule behaves is different if performed today or in 5 years’ time. Similarly, the impulse given to the science-related industry – healthcare, building industry – is different depending on the speed of the research. Cloud computing can play an important role not only by helping researchers with additional compute resources, or enterprises that don’t need to make expensive upfront IT investments, but also in terms of time: “Thanks to the VENUS-C platform we will be able to do in few weeks molecular computations that would have taken a year to complete on our own servers” states enthusiastically Vladimir Sykora, co-founder of Molplex, a small UK SME working on drug discovery, one of the 15 new pilots. Time is of vital importance in healthcare and human wellness, for instance in dealing with new medicine: “This application allows us to quickly estimate the activity in the human body of new chemical compounds”. In some contexts, time lost can have irreparable consequences. When wildfire strikes every second counts to avoid lost lives, deforestation and property damage. Cloud computing enables complex simulations to be performed in seconds. The wildfire application, led by the University of the Aegean in Greece, provides a tool to timely calculate a fire risk index and fire propagation. With VENUS-C Wildfire simulations, firefighting personnel, emergency crews and other authorities can design operational plans to prevent forest fires with new levels of precision. Further enhancement of the same platform can incorporate real-time positioning based services for emergency response and resource dispatching situations with the application of in-situ detection cameras, remote automatic weather station, GPS locators and fleet tracking management systems, thus reducing the time to early fire detection and to the entry into action of the relief forces. “The Fire Risk and Fire Propagation algorithms of VENUS-C are currently undergoing validation, verification, sensitivity analysis and further technical modifications as needed,” explains Professor Kostas D. Kalabokidis, University of the Aegean, Greece. “Real data from wildfire incidents occurring now at the island of Lesvos, Greece, are under intensive investigation with the cooperation and support of the local Fire Service (which is responsible for fire control activities) and concurring training by our AEGEAN team (Univ. of the Aegean, Dept. of Geography, Geography of Natural Disasters Lab, Mytilene, Greece). These processes will continue and be intensified further during this very hot summer/fire season of 2011, to improve the required efficiency and validity of the fire algorithms and simulations”. source: www.venus-c.eu
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