ACADEMIA
Variety brings spice to the Grid
The 3rd EGEE User Forum gets underway: Users of the world's largest science grid infrastructure will come together at the 3rd Annual EGEE User Forum this week, 11 - 14 February 2008, in Clermont-Ferrand, France, to share their experiences and demonstrate the varied uses of the grid. 
Grid technology, once the preserve of the technology specialist, now covers such diverse industries as gaming and accounting, and is beginning to have an impact in all our lives. From its earliest uses in physics and the life sciences, grid technology, using the internet to share computing power, storage and applications, has brought unprecedented computational might to scientists desktops. The Grid provides the opportunity for global scientific collaborations on a completely new scale, sharing knowledge alongside computer processing power. The Enabling Grids for E-Science project (EGEE) has established the world's largest multi-purpose production grid infrastructure operated by more 90 partners spanning 45 countries from Europe and the rest of the World. The User Forum brings together technical experts, scientists and business partners, all part of the wider user community, to explore current thinking, new approaches and solutions to common problems. The rich and varied programme consists of daily plenary sessions featuring distinguished keynote speakers, followed by parallel sessions covering the use of grid technology in stock analysis, nuclear fusion, pollution models, earthquake prediction, galaxy detection and the study of human diseases, alongside discussions of the more technical aspects of the infrastructure, including middleware and interoperability. Sessions for demonstrations and posters will augment the oral program, and provide a key element of the forum. Plenary sessions include a look at the European Grid Initiative Design Study, planning for the future of the grid infrastructure in Europe; challenges and success of the High Energy Physics Grid; support for applications; current research in Grid Computing; and the SHARE project, developing the Grid for improved healthcare. For more information on the programme and speakers visit its Web site. The 3rd EGEE User Forum industrial sponsors include Biogemma, Cisco, CNRS, Dell, HP, Michelin and Nortel.
Grid technology, once the preserve of the technology specialist, now covers such diverse industries as gaming and accounting, and is beginning to have an impact in all our lives. From its earliest uses in physics and the life sciences, grid technology, using the internet to share computing power, storage and applications, has brought unprecedented computational might to scientists desktops. The Grid provides the opportunity for global scientific collaborations on a completely new scale, sharing knowledge alongside computer processing power. The Enabling Grids for E-Science project (EGEE) has established the world's largest multi-purpose production grid infrastructure operated by more 90 partners spanning 45 countries from Europe and the rest of the World. The User Forum brings together technical experts, scientists and business partners, all part of the wider user community, to explore current thinking, new approaches and solutions to common problems. The rich and varied programme consists of daily plenary sessions featuring distinguished keynote speakers, followed by parallel sessions covering the use of grid technology in stock analysis, nuclear fusion, pollution models, earthquake prediction, galaxy detection and the study of human diseases, alongside discussions of the more technical aspects of the infrastructure, including middleware and interoperability. Sessions for demonstrations and posters will augment the oral program, and provide a key element of the forum. Plenary sessions include a look at the European Grid Initiative Design Study, planning for the future of the grid infrastructure in Europe; challenges and success of the High Energy Physics Grid; support for applications; current research in Grid Computing; and the SHARE project, developing the Grid for improved healthcare. For more information on the programme and speakers visit its Web site. The 3rd EGEE User Forum industrial sponsors include Biogemma, Cisco, CNRS, Dell, HP, Michelin and Nortel.