Delivering the Grid

PPARC scientists are helping to deliver the Grid, the next generation of internet infrastructure. On September 2-4th, they will be presenting their progress at the UK's All Hands E-Science meeting in Nottingham, the forum for all UK scientists in this research area. PPARC's E-Science programme is investing #58 million over six years from April 2001.

Initial work focused on developing the basic Grid infrastructure but now the various projects are starting to deliver functioning systems., ,GridPP,GridPP is creating a Grid for particle physics, essential to manage the data deluge from the Large Hadron Collider, the largest and most powerful collider ever being built at CERN, which will produce millions of Gigabytes of data. GridPP has developed an operational Grid, which works within the European DataGrid (EDG) framework and consists of storage and computing elements distributed over 50 sites around the world.,Examples of GridPP work are:,· R-GMA (Relational Grid Management Architecture) was developed as part of the EDG project. It is being used both for information about the Grid and for application monitoring.,· GUIDO is a generic Grid job submission interface. It is based on a Client/Server model and is written in Java.,· Sam-Grid, which is used by two data intensive experiments (CDF and D0 at Fermilab) to manage 2 million files or 0.5 Petabytes of data, distributed across dozens of analysis sites. A 'real' data challenge will be conducted this September, where some 22 TB of data will be reprocessed, mostly at remote computer facilities. Sam-Grid is now delivering essential services to operational high-energy particle physics experiments., ,AstroGrid,The UK AstroGrid Project is one of three major worldwide projects (along with the European AVO and US-VO projects) which are creating an astronomical Virtual Observatory. AstroGrid aims to increase the efficiency of astronomical research by:,· Allowing users to interrogate multiple data centres in a seamless and transparent way,· Providing powerful new analysis and visualisation tools,· Giving data centres and providers a standard framework for publishing and delivering services using their data.,AstroGrid will use data from public astronomy data sets such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory's VLT. The problems of sharing different data sets smoothly are common to many Grid applications.,AstroGrid is now releasing new software on a three-monthly iterative cycle, successively increasing the capabilities offered to its user community., ,E-Star,The aim of the eScience Telescopes for Astronomical Research (eSTAR) project is to create internet-linked networks of robotic telescopes, which can respond to changes in the night sky within seconds. The first tests of the "intelligent agent" software are being made now, and observations requested by intelligent agents have already been carried out using the 3.8-m UK Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Eventually these agents will be able to examine the results from observations they have requested and, if required, request follow-up observations. This project is funded by EPSRC, PPARC and the Department of Trade and Industry, and involves researchers from the University of Exeter, the Joint Astronomy Center in Hawaii and Liverpool John Moores University., ,Artificial Neural Networks and Cancer Research,A project jointly funded by PPARC and the Medical Research Council (MRC) is predicting survival rates for cancer patients by creating an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which is trained using real medical data. So far, it has a 90% correct prediction rate, with data from only 245 patients. This will be expanded in the future, enabling the ANN to offer the optimum profile for disease management for future patients. As well as developing the software, scientists are applying Grid security and certificates to protect sensitive data., ,GridOneD,This project is creating Java middleware for Grid applications. Key to this is Triana, an open source problem-solving environment. Triana provides a simple but flexible interface that allows users to develop Grid distributed applications while hiding the complexity of the underlying mechanisms. A primary application of Triana is to carry out analysis of Gravitational Wave data generated by the UK-German GEO 600 project. GEO 600 is still in the final stages of testing but is soon expected to start putting out 2.6 Mbytes of data per second. Triana will provide quick-look analysis capability to help scientists in their search for the elusive gravity waves.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------,Notes for Editors, ,E-Science,The Government has defined e-Science as "science increasingly done through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet, using very large data collections, tera-scale computing resources and high performance visualisation." PPARC interprets this definition widely, to include computational and data grid applications, middleware developments and essential hardware procurement., ,The Grid,The Grid is named in analogy to the electricity grid and is the next step in internet computing. Just as the World Wide Web is distributed information, the Grid is distributed computer power. The user will not need to work out which computers to access, just as someone using a hairdryer does not need to know how the electricity is generated in a power station hundreds of miles away. , ,In 1990, scientific needs drove the creation of the World Wide Web at CERN, now new experiments being constructed need vast distributed computer processing and storage. Projects like SETI@home pioneered this approach, but Grid technology is improving the techniques, harnessing more computing power and automating the distribution processes., ,Home Users,Just as the WWW is now used daily by people all around the world, the Grid will migrate eventually from laboratories to the home user. The Grid can be used to give people faster, easier access to a variety of high-bandwidth services such as video-gaming or streaming films. Grid technology is still in its infancy, but scientists are now delivering working Grids in a research environment - it is only a matter of time before commercial applications take off and people are using the Grid from home., ,Media Invite,Journalists are welcome to attend the All Hands E-Science meeting. An invitation was issued by EPSRC on behalf of all the research councils and is available at http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/website/default.aspx?CID=9675&ZoneID=8&MenuID=121 ,Further details of the conference are at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience/documents/allhands2003webpage.htm ,Contact Details, ,GridPP,Steve Lloyd, Queen Mary, University of London (attending conference),Mobile: [phone], E-mail: [e-mail], ,AstroGrid,Keith Noddle, University of Leicester (attending conference),Mobile: [phone], E-mail [e-mail], ,eStar, ,Prof Tim Naylor, ,School of Physics, University of Exeter,Tel: [phone], E-mail: [e-mail], ,Douglas Pierce-Price,Joint Astronomy Center, Hawaii.,E-mail: [e-mail],web site: http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/,Tel: [phone]
ANN & Cancer Research,Professor Robin Marshall, University of Manchester,Tel: [phone], Mobile: [phone] E-mail [e-mail], ,GridOneD,Matthew Shields, University of Cardiff (attending conference),Mobile: [phone], ,Ian Taylor, University of Cardiff,E-mail: [e-mail], ,PPARC Press Office,Julia Maddock,Tel : [phone], E-mail: [e-mail], ,The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) is the UK's strategic science investment agency. It funds research, education and public understanding in four broad areas of science - particle physics, astronomy, cosmology and space science. , ,PPARC is government funded and provides research grants and studentships to scientists in British universities, gives researchers access to world-class facilities and funds the UK membership of international bodies such as the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, CERN, the European Space Agency and the European Southern Observatory. It also contributes money for the UK telescopes overseas on La Palma, Hawaii, Australia and in Chile, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility.

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United Kingdom