Towards a Platform for Widespread Embedded Intelligence - ERCIM

4
JOINT ERCIM ACTIONS
CoreGRID Summer School 2006 -
First Steps in Next Generation Grid Technologies
by Stephan Springstubbe and Wolfgang Ziegler
The CoreGRID Summer School 2006 (CSS'06) took place in Bonn, Germany from
24 to 28 July. Organising the yearly summer school, CoreGRID - The European
Research Network on Foundations, Software Infrastructures and Applications
for large-scale distributed GRID and Peer-to-Peer Technologies - aims at providing
the possibility of advanced training to students and researchers in a trend-setting
domain of computer science, which is currently under-represented in the curricula
of universities. CoreGRID summer schools are organised by a different CoreGRID
partner each year and take place in distinct European cities.
CSS'06 was organised by the
Department of Bioinformatics of the
Fraunhofer Institute SCAI and hosted by
the Bonn-Aachen International Centre
for Information Technology (B-IT). The
B-IT generously supported the event,
providing their whole infrastructure.
The 80 participants included 55 students
and researchers from 12 countries and 25
international experts from eight countries,
with approximately two out of
three of the participants coming from
institutions involved in CoreGRID. They
worked on 35 course units focusing on
Grid Resource Management, Scheduling
and Monitoring, Grid Application in Life
Sciences and Industry, as well as Future
Generation Grids. These course units
also included the results of the most
important European Grid projects and
two half-day hands-on exercises. CSS'06
was financially supported by IBM and
SUN, allowing it to maintain a registration
fee appropriate for students, who
ERCIM News No. 67, October 2006
indicated on their evaluation forms that
they were very satisfied with the event.
CSS'06 will have a bearing on several
levels, the most important being the curriculum
of the B-IT, the further integration
of the European Grid research and
development, the transfer of knowledge
to their home institutions via the students
and researchers and, most importantly,
CoreGRID
summer
school
participants.
the growing support for a broader use of
Grid technologies.
For the B-IT the CSS'06 marks the
launch of a Grid curriculum. For the first
time, starting with the winter semester
2006/07, a course will be offered which
is designed as an introduction to Grid
technologies and applications. For the
following semesters more in-depth
courses are planned, in particular
addressing the application of Grid technology
in the Life Sciences. Researchers
of the B-IT expect that Grid technologies
will help satisfy the enormous demand
for computing power, data and specific
services in the Life Sciences and, for
example, the pharmaceutical industry,
which until now may only be covered
using supercomputers. Hence, this
aspect of student training has a strategic
impact and helps in assuring competitive
advantages.
Experience gained during this summer
school and from the previous CSS point
to the creation of initial networks
between participants from different
European institutions and the lecturers.
Participants and lecturers normally continue
maintaining these networks after
the event, thus advancing the integration
of the European Grid research and development
which is - together with excellence
- the main objective of CoreGRID.
In the home institutions of the participants,
the awareness of research and
development around Grid technologies
is increasing through the imminent
transfer of knowledge by the participants.
Finally, the result of the training of scientists
and students across the three
levels mentioned helps to support the
broader use of Grid technologies in different
research disciplines and industry
in the future.
The CoreGRID Network of Excellence
is administrated by ERCIM.
Links:
CoreGRID: http://www.coregrid.net
2006 Summer School:
http://www.coregrid.net/mambo/content/
view/231/221/
Please contact:
Stephan Springstubbe
Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms
and Scientific Computing (SCAI)
Tel: +49 2241 14 2337
E-mail:
stephan.springstubbe@scai.fraunhofer.de