Introduction to NeSC: The Gateway to UK e-Science Dave Berry, Research Manager HEPix Meeting, May 2004

Outline: The UK e-Science Programme The UK e-Science Programme A quick recap The National e-Science Centre Role and mission The e-Science Institute Some NeSC projects Focus on Data management

Staff costs - Grid Resources funded separately UK e-Science Budget ( ) Source: Science Budget 2003/4 – 2005/6, DTI(OST) Total: £213M

Globus Alliance CeSC (Cambridge) Digital Curation Centre e-Science Institute Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute Grid Operations Centre The e-Science Centres HPC(x)

CeSC (Cambridge) The e-Science Grid Engineering Task Force (Contributions from e-Science Centres) Grid Support Centre / Grid Operations Centre OGSA Test Grid projects HPC(x) 1280 x CPU AIX 64 x CPU 4TB Disk Linux 20 x CPU 18TB Disk Linux 512 x CPU Irix

The EUropean dimension: EGEE EGEE Applications Geant network Enabling Grids for E-Science in Europe A European-wide production quality Grid Total budget: 32M 50% production, 30% development, and 20% dissemination and training Approach Bind national and regional Grid infrastructures Initially based on LHC Computing Grid

The EGEE Consortium Total of 70 full partners covering entire EU and beyond Additional funding from NSF (USA)

UK GridPP (part of EDG/EGEE) 17 Universities Rutherford Appleton Laboratory European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) Multiple Projects: UKQCD BaBar LHCb VOMS at Manchester Resource Broker at Imperial College 4 Regional Computing Centres (inc. ScotGrid)

Outline: The National e-Science Centre The UK e-Science Programme A quick recap The National e-Science Centre Role and mission The e-Science Institute Some NeSC projects Focus on Data management

NeSC Roles Help coordinate and lead UK e- Science Community building & outreach Training for UK and EGEE Help establish the UKs international role The focus for presenting UK e-Science Run the e-Science Institute Research visitors and events Undertake R&D projects Reliable middleware (OGSA-DAI, SunDCG, …) Engage industry (IBM, Sun, Microsoft, HP, Oracle, …) Stimulate the uptake of e-Science technology

eSI Events held in our 2 nd Year (from 1 Aug 2002 to 31 Jul 2003) We have had 86 events: 11 project meetings 11 research meetings 25 workshops 2 summer schools 15 training sessions 12 outreach events 5 international meetings 5 e-Science management meetings (though the definitions are fuzzy!)

eSI Workshops Space for real work Crossing communities Creativity: new strategies and solutions Written reports Scientific Data Mining, Integration and Visualisation Grid Information Systems Portals and Portlets Virtual Observatory as a Data Grid Imaging, Medical Analysis and Grid Environments Open Issues in Grid Scheduling Data Provenance & Annotation e-Science Workflow Services GeoSciences & Scottish Bioinformatics Forum Suggestions always welcome!

eSI Industrial Involvement 133 delegates from 64 companies including not only: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Hewlett- Packard but also: Apple, Astra Zeneca, BAE, Cisco, Honeywell, Motorola, Organon, Pfizer, Siemens, …

eSI Research Visitors Collaborate with UK research and development Engage in and develop eSI event programme Build bridges with your community Visit for anywhere between one week and six months Link up with regional e-Science centres

Becoming a research visitor Establish a collaboration with NeSC Pre-established mutual interests We encourage diversity of disciplines Complementary experience, knowledge and skills We can help match interests and develop a plan Visitors already engaged in relevant R&D This is not a training opportunity Our support depends on the length and value of visit Typically covers travel and/or local living costs Application via our web site

Outline: NeSC Projects The UK e-Science Programme A quick recap The National e-Science Centre Role and mission The e-Science Institute Some NeSC projects Focus on Data management

NeSC Projects More than 35 projects: Astronomy, Particle Physics, NeuroInformatics, BioInformatics, Middleware, Fundamental CS, Collaboration, Fabric Management, Wearable devices, … Particular emphasis on scientific data management Over £20,000,000 funding in total

Data Services GGF Data Access and Integration Services (DAIS) OGSA interfaces to query and update relational databases, XML databases and flat files. Ongoing work to integrate with data streams The foundation for: Replication: Data located in multiple locations Federation: Composition of multiple sources Provenance: How was data generated? OGSA-DAI software Shipped with Globus Toolkit v3.2

e-Science Application Binary Data File BinX – accessing legacy binary data The Problem: Many binary data files Applications must know the data format Binary data formats are machine-specific BinX Library The Solution: Write a stand-aside format description in XML Provide a library to Interpret the description Provide file access across different machines Build higher-level services BinX file describes binary file structure simulations

The Virtual Observatory International Virtual Observatory Alliance UK, Australia, EU, China, Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan, Korea, US, Russia, France, India How to integrate many multi-TB collections of heterogeneous data distributed globally? Sociological and technological challenges to be met

Information on our Web Site National e-Science Centre Mission, Foundation, Locations, Staff, Resources Register interest, Mailing lists, NeSCForge Regional associations and Collaborations News, Notices Presentations and Lectures e-Science Institute Events (Future and Past) Visitor Programme UK e-Science Map and Index of Centres Technical Papers Index of >100 Projects Task Forces General Information Glossary, Bibliography, Whos who E-Science job vacancies

Questions?