Content about Education

  Technology - “Grid in a Box” makes virtual grids a piece of cake Do you ever wish there was an easier solution to setting up a grid? Perhaps “grid in a box” could be your answer. Image copyright © 2000 George Eastman House Creating a cake became much easier in the late 40s when Betty Crocker released cake mix in a box.Do you ever wish there was an equivalent for computing grids? Now there is, almost. An approach known as “grid in a box” is making it possible to gather all the ingredients required to make grid computing more affordable and accessible for participating grid centers. “The idea of ‘grid in a box’ is to put all needed grid services on one piece of hardware,” says Oliver Oberst, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. “Instead of having several machines working together to host the infrastructure of a grid site, there are several virtual machines working on one computer—the ‘box.’” Traditionally, building a grid site with gLite&m

Learn: Choose and start to use your grid

A few of the many grid projects available.Image courtesy of NorduGrid and Vicky White

Grid technology continues to improve and new grids and grid projects are appearing across the planet. From campus grids to massive international projects, opportunities to get involved with grids and e-science are growing.
But how do you get started? What jobs do the different grids support? Who can join? Will you need a computing degree to work it all out?
This article provides a quick snapshot of four very different grid infrastructures—Enabling Grids for E-sciencE, Open Science Grid, GridPP and TeraGrid—and provides an overview of what they’re doing and how you can get involved.
Enabling Grids for E-sciencE
Open Science Grid
GridPP
TeraGrid
 
Enabling Grids for E-SciencE
What do you do?
The Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project provides scientists and engineers from 48 countries with a seamless grid infrastructure for e-sc

Image of the week - Dirty laundry: what really goes on at grid summer schools The grim truth behind the exotic image: Apparently grid summer schools aren’t as squeaky clean as they make out!Image © Harald BarthProviding an inside peek into the real nuts and bolts of a working grid summer school, this image was taken at the 5th International Summer School on Grid Computing, held in Mariefred, Sweden, from 8-20 July 2007.The school attracted 62 students from various backgrounds, introducing them to different grid technologies during lectures and practical sessions. According to one student, the school provided “an experience in developing and using our own strategies with grid technologies.”Another highlight of the summer school was “the community, by far the best asset.”And as this picture suggests, the school provided many opportunities for students to get to know each other on an entirely new level... Even scientists need to wash.   

  Feature - @home in Africa: African scientists plug into the global computer During last week’s hands-on AFRICA@home workshop African scientists installed servers and set up a new volunteer computing project. This tangible experience allows them to harness the power of volunteer computers across the globe to support research into major issues affecting Africa.Image courtesy of AFRICA@home Volunteer computing projects like SETI@home, Einstein@home and LHC@home are providing scientists with huge computing resources, donated by the public. So, imagine what African scientists could do if they could tap into the power of the millions of idle computers around the world...Sounds crazy? In fact, this was the subject of a workshop held 16-22 July at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Muizenberg, South Africa. The workshop’s 35 participants came from 18 African countries and were selected from scores of applications.Possibilities for AfricaCan African scientists really benefit from volunteer computi

Announcement - Do-Son grid school in Hanoi, Vietnam: November dates Vietnam’s National Centre for Natural Science and Technology is responsible for researching and developing technologies and natural sciences. Image courtesy of the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology The Do-Son School on Advanced Computing and Grid Technologies for Research will take place from 5-16 November 2007 at the Institute of Information Technology of the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology in Hanoi, Vietnam.In the spirit of the Do Son schools, jointly organized by CNRS and the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, and of the International Symposia on Grid Computing, organized by the Academia Sinica in Taïwan, the school aims to train students and young researchers from all over Asia in grid technology.Trainees will learn how to use grid infrastructure and highly successful tools for simulation and data analysis.The classes will be given in English by international experts from Asia and Europe. The school will finish

  Feature - UK Parliament gets up to speed on grid technology Could you explain the intricacies and potential of grid technology to your local parliamentarian, and all in the time it takes to eat breakfast? Stock image from morguefile If he can find time in his busy schedule, the UK’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, can learn about grids with the launch of a new parliamentary briefing paper.The four-page introduction to grids and e-science has been produced for policy makers by the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). As well as discussing grid technology and some of the UK’s key projects, it looks at issues like security, licensing and, of course, funding.POST is part of the UK Parliament, working for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. For nearly 20 years POST has been informing UK Members of Parliament about policy issues with a foundation in science and technology, which can include anything from climate change to stem cell research.David Cope, POST’s director

  Opinion - SOS for education: calling on grid people power Rose presents at the TeraGrid ’07 conference, espousing the role of grid communities in education reform.Image courtesy of Marijke Unger at NCARIn the United States, educators proclaim we need to prepare our youth for life in the 21st century.  Yet typical high school graduation requirements in the United States today are based on the recommendations of a group of ten men brought together in 1892 by the National Education Association.This means discussion about school reform today is basically focused on tweaking a program recommended over a century ago, for different times, and still based on an agrarian calendar.  It’s time to think about a total redesign of the way we educate our citizens. Making your contributionGrid communities have been relatively silent on this issue. Why? You have a unique perspective on technology skills needed today and in the future. You understand the human resources and skills needed to maintain the high performance

  Learn: A crash course in grid computing Grid computing is not only providing scientists with the computing power to push the limits of their science, it is also fueling all-new levels of international scientific collaboration. iSGTW has devoted an entire newsletter to science grids, but you’re not even sure what one is? Get the basics on the biggest thing in information technology today. What is a grid?Grid computing is a way of connecting computing resources to share their computing power. Computer grids allow access to computing resources from many different locations, just as the World Wide Web allows access to information. These computing resources include data storage capacity, computing power, sensors, visualization tools and much, much more. Using a grid, someone sitting at one computer can harness the combined capabilities of hundreds and thousands of computers, providing researchers with the extra power to make faster progress in their work. How do grids wo

Link of the Week - Grid Technology Training at Georgetown University A class in April 2007 at Georgetown University’s Advanced Research Computing center introducing Beowulf design, planning, building and administration.Image courtesy of Arnie Miles The Georgetown University Advanced Research Computing division and the Center for Continuing Education have created a certification program for computer systems administrators wanting to advance in the fields of high performance and high throughput computing. The Advanced Research Computing division is also offering training in parallel and distributed programming. This will give students a full spectrum of high performance and high throughput computational training. These programs are designed to help workers develop the skills necessary to compete in this growing field. Training materials from these classes is available in a free online wiki. “The goal behind these programs is to build a work force,” says Arnie Miles, one of the instructors. “For t

Feature - Fermilab Postdoc Gets Word out About the Grid Oliver Gutsche in his office at Fermilab.Image courtesy of Christine Buckley, FermilabOliver Gutsche, a postdoctoral researcher at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, U.S., and member of the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration, participated in the Midwest Grid Workshop at the University of Illinois in Chicago, held March 24–25, where he taught students and scientists how to make the grid best work for them and their science. No stranger to science communication, Gutsche has enjoyed talking about physics since he gave organized tours to neighbors and visitors at DESY, a center for physics research in Germany, during his graduate school days. “In my opinion, the public usually thinks that we physicists just sit in our ivory towers,” he says. “Informing the public helps in changing this.”At the workshop, Gutsche demonstrated the submission of several jobs to the grid; he calls his demo “Discovering the Higgs on OSG.” The grid concept employs i

Link of the Week - nanoHUB.org Structure of a lipid bilayer computed by nanoGromacs, of nanoHUB.orgCourtesy of nanoHUB.org nanoHUB.org offers free online simulation tools and educational material for teaching and research in nanotechnology. Users can choose from almost 50 simulation tools, allowing them to simulate solar cells, networks of carbon nanotubes and nano-transistors, among many other structures. The tools appear to run as applets in a browser window, but they are powered by a remote HUB infrastructure. No software is installed or uploaded to a users computer. In order to run simulations, you must log in with a nanoHUB username and password.  Initial testing is currently under way to enable end users to execute the most processing-intensive tools to both Open Science Grid and TeraGrid resources.  In addition to online simulation tools, nanoHUB also hosts online classes and seminars on subjects including quantum transport, nanoelectronics and nanophotonics.nanoHUB is supported by the National Science Fo

Feature: Kids Enjoy GridsA student asks a question during the “Grids for Kids” day.   Image courtesy of EGEE.  “I want to come back and work here when I’m older,” was the spontaneous reaction of one of the children invited by the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project for a “Grids for Kids” day at the end of January this year. The children, aged nine to eleven, came to EGEE headquarters at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of their computing class. The EGEE Gender Action team organized the day to introduce children to grid technology at an early age and to encourage the participation of females in science. All of the presenters were women, but the school group included both boys and girls. Where are your white coats? “Before this visit the children thought that scientists always wore white coats and worked in sterile labs concocting potions, were usually male, and had wild Einstein-like hair,” said Jackie Beaver, the class’s teacher at the Insti