Feature - Cairo Hosts an International Grid School

The Sphinx and one of the pyramids at the Giza plateau, Egypt. Stock image from sxc.hu

From April 17 to April 28, in the shadow of ancient technological marvels, scientists from all over the Mediterranean are working to advance modern computing technology and teach other researchers to do the same. A hotel in downtown Cairo, about five miles from the great pyramids at Giza, is the site of the first EUMEDGRID School on Application Porting (EGSAP-1).

“This is the first time we have organized such a large event in this region,” says Federico Ruggieri, EUMEDGRID Project Manager.

The 15-day school, which involves researchers from seven Mediterranean countries, aims to port 10 applications before the closing session next Saturday. At the time of publication, nine of the 10 applications had been successfully “ported” or incorporated into grid middleware. And one of the applications already has its Web interface.

“This is excellent, much better than expected," says Roberto Barbera, EUMEDGRID technical coordinator. “We are very pleased.”

These applications come from the fields of biology, engineering, mathematics, physics and the cognitive sciences. More than 20 applications were initially proposed. Organizers of the school selected applications for their quality, numbers of developers and users and their relevance to scientific research and society.

“The response of Mediterranean scientists was very good, especially that of young researchers,” says Omar Karam, director of the Egyptian University Network and host of the school. “This is a very good sign that the new generations are very active and can play an important role in bringing the Mediterranean countries to the highest levels of innovation in the field of information technology.”

Knowing how to port scientific applications to the grid will allow Egyptian and Mediterranean scientists to take advantage of the computing resources EUMEDGRID seeks to make available and will promote collaboration between researchers in the region and researchers in other areas of Europe.

The EUMEDGRID School on Application Porting was organized with the help of the Egyptian Univesities Network.

-Danielle Venton, iSGTW Editor