INDUSTRY

The Northwest Indiana Computational Grid, a distributed computing facility, this fall has become the first regional grid to join the international Open Science Grid. The Northwest Indiana Computational Grid, which began in 2005, links the scientific resources of the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, Ind., Purdue University's main campus at West Lafayette, Ind., and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory with fiberoptic connections. Ruth Pordes, executive director of the grid, said the Open Science Grid makes innovative science possible because it helps distribute the latest advances in distributed computing technologies. "The Open Science Grid consortium is pleased to welcome the Northwest Indiana Computational Grid as its newest partner," she said. "Bringing these national and regional grid infrastructures together will benefit scientists from both groups as the NWICG's use of OSG middleware makes it easier for Indiana researchers to get on the grid, and OSG researchers start harnessing the power of NWICG resources." Members of the Open Science Grid contribute resources to the consortium and can benefit from resources at more than 50 institutions in the United States, Asia and South America. The Open Science Grid's primary focus is on large-scale scientific research projects, such as the particle physics experiments being developed at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Science, in Geneva. Christoph Hoffmann, director of Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, said the Open Science Grid brings scientists who are separated geographically closer together. "The OSG essentially makes the research world flat," he said. "It gives us access to a broader community, and it brings in new ideas and new opportunities." Dewitt Latimer, Notre Dame's chief technology officer, likes the Open Science Grid because it brings a standardized tool set to the high-performance computing grid community. "For once we have an agreed upon common suite of open-source tools that everyone is striving to make work seamlessly together." The Open Science Grid was formed in 2005 and is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Purdue and the Notre Dame also are members of the Open Science Grid consortium.