Grid project gets funding boost to help solve global problems
Grid project gets funding boost to help solve global problems
Aug 30, 2005: The network of supercomputers called the Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) – but more commonly known as TeraGrid - is to receive funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the next five years to the tune of US$148 million to help researchers and educators access a range of computing resources that will accelerate advances in science and engineering.
The NSF will spend the money by 2010 to help expand TeraGrid. Built over the past four years, TaeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research. Through high-performance network connections, TeraGrid integrates high-performance computers, data resources and tools, and high-end experimental facilities.
"Many new users from a range of scientific communities will now have access to sophisticated IT applications and computational tools. Over time, these applications will be customised to the needs of the individual or community," said NSF director, Arden Bement.
"TeraGrid unites the science and engineering community so that larger, more complex scientific questions can be answered. Solving these larger challenges will, in turn, motivate the development of the next generation of cyberinfrastructure. This is a win-win situation consistent with NSF's mission to keep science and engineering at the frontier," continued Bement.
The scientists and engineers responsible for TeraGrid operations will work closely with researchers whose science requires powerful computing resources. For example, researchers using TeraGrid are exploring functions of decoded genomes, how the brain works, the constitution of the universe, disease diagnosis, and real-time weather forecasting to predict the exact locations of tornado and storm threats. TeraGrid will also help engineers design better aircraft via realistic simulations of new designs.
TeraGrid's creators and collaborators are developing a "science gateways" initiative to allow more researchers and educators access to TeraGrid capabilities, tailored to their own communities, through their own desktop computers. Science gateway projects are aimed at supporting access to TeraGrid via web portals, desktop applications or via other grids. An initial set of 10 gateways will address new scientific opportunities in fields from bioinformatics to nanotechnology as well as interoperation between TeraGrid and other grid infrastructures.
Such access will enable researchers to analyse terabytes of data collected by scientific instruments, telescopes, satellites and remote sensors. TeraGrid will allow researchers to manipulate enormous data sets in novel ways to gain new insights into research questions and societal problems.
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