INDUSTRY

Over the past decade, grid computing has grown from a few small computer science projects to a worldwide phenomenon. Dozens of grid computing projects are now in operation around the globe, enabling research in many different scientific fields. From medicine to earthquake engineering to particle physics, researchers are depending on grid computing to connect them with their peers and with the computing power they need for advanced scientific research. On Friday, February 16, the opening day of the 2007 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Francisco, two sessions will feature examples of scientific discovery made possible by grid and distributed computing technologies. The first session, jointly organized by the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE, Open Science Grid and TeraGrid projects, brings grid and volunteer computing pioneers together with scientists from the fields of physics, earth science and psychology to discuss the global use of distributed computing technologies. The second session focuses on one U.S. grid project, the TeraGrid, and the scientists using it to access high-performance computing power for their research. More information can be found at the AAAS Annual Meeting Web site. Session details: Science, Society and Shared Cyberinfrastructure: Discovery on the Grid Friday, February 16, 2007, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Participating Projects: Enabling Grids for E-sciencE, Open Science Grid, TeraGrid Summary: Advances in grid computing and cyberinfrastructure technologies shape the way many of today’s scientists think about, plan and carry out research. All fields of science take advantage of the new technologies, which empower scientists to share knowledge, data and computer processing power across regional, organizational and cultural boundaries. This session will discuss scientific advances enabled by grid computing and cyberinfrastructure, and the computer science and developments behind these discoveries. Speakers: BOINC Director David Anderson; Ian Foster, director of the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory; Open Science Grid Director Ruth Pordes; earth scientists Jean-Bernard Minster and Monique Petitdidier; physicists Joe Lykken and Charles Loomis; and psychologist Bennett Bertenthal. Chew on This: A Trillion Bytes for All Science and Engineering Friday, February 16, 2007, 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Participating Project: TeraGrid Summary: The National Science Foundation’s TeraGrid offers the unique advantage of tightly coupled, distributed computing resources for scientific discovery that is not possible within a single computer center. By accessing the TeraGrid, researchers from all fields of science and engineering are applying high-performance computing power to their studies. Speakers: TeraGrid Director Charlie Catlett; Donna Cox, director of the Advanced Scientific Visualization Laboratory at NCSA; and Phil Maechling from the Southern California Earthquake Center.