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 ProgrammeA quick recap

The National e-Science Centre Role and missionThe e-Science Institute

Some NeSC projectsFocus on Data management

NERC (£15M)7%

CLRC (£10M)5%

ESRC (£13.6M)6%

PPARC (£57.6M)27%

BBSRC (£18M)8%

MRC (£21.1M)10%

EPSRC (£77.7M)37%

Staff costs -Grid Resources

funded separately

UK e-Science Budget (2001-2006)

Source: Science Budget 2003/4 – 2005/6, DTI(OST)

Total: £213M

Globus Alliance

CeSC (Cambridge)

DigitalCurationCentre

e-Science Institute

Open Middleware

Infrastructure Institute

Grid Operations

Centre

The e-Science Centres

HPC(x)

The EUropean dimension: EGEE

EGEE

Applications

Geant network

Enabling Grids for E-Science in Europe

A European-wide production quality GridTotal budget: €32M50% production, 30% development, and 20% dissemination and training

ApproachBind national and regional Grid infrastructures Initially based on LHC Computing Grid

The EGEE Consortium

Total of 70 full partners covering entire EU and beyondAdditional funding from NSF (USA)

UK GridPP (part of EDG/EGEE)

17 UniversitiesRutherford Appleton LaboratoryEuropean Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN)Multiple Projects:

UKQCDBaBarLHCb

VOMS at ManchesterResource Broker at Imperial College4 Regional Computing Centres (inc. ScotGrid)

Outline: The National e-Science Centre

The UK e-Science ProgrammeA quick recap

The National e-Science Centre Role and missionThe e-Science Institute

Some NeSC projectsFocus on Data management

NeSC Roles

Help coordinate and lead UK e-Science

Community building & outreachTraining for UK and EGEE

Help establish the UK’s international role

The focus for presenting UK e-Science

Run the e-Science InstituteResearch visitors and events

Undertake R&D projectsReliable middleware (OGSA-DAI, SunDCG, …)Engage industry (IBM, Sun, Microsoft, HP, Oracle, …)Stimulate the uptake of e-Science technology

eSI Events held in our 2nd Year(from 1 Aug 2002 to 31 Jul 2003)

We have had 86 events: 11 project meetings 11 research meetings 25 workshops2 “summer” schools15 training sessions12 outreach events5 international meetings5 e-Science management meetings

(though the definitions are fuzzy!)

eSI Workshops

Space for real workCrossing communitiesCreativity: new strategies and solutionsWritten reports

Scientific Data Mining, Integration and VisualisationGrid Information SystemsPortals and PortletsVirtual Observatory as a Data GridImaging, Medical Analysis and Grid EnvironmentsOpen Issues in Grid SchedulingData Provenance & Annotatione-Science Workflow ServicesGeoSciences & 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 developmentEngage in and develop eSI event programmeBuild bridges with your communityVisit for anywhere between one week and six monthsLink up with regional e-Science centres

Outline: NeSC Projects

The UK e-Science ProgrammeA quick recap

The National e-Science Centre Role and missionThe e-Science Institute

Some NeSC projectsFocus 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 locationsFederation: Composition of multiple sourcesProvenance: How was data generated?

OGSA-DAI softwareShipped with Globus Toolkit v3.2

e-ScienceApplication

BinaryData File

BinaryData FileBinary

Data File

BinaryData FileBinary

Data File

BinaryData File

BinX – accessing legacy binary data

The Problem:Many binary data filesApplications must “know”the data formatBinary data formats are machine-specific

BinX Library

The Solution:Write a “stand-aside” format description in XMLProvide a library to

Interpret the description Provide file access across

different machines

Build higher-level services

BinX file describes binary file structure

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 manymulti-TB collections ofheterogeneous data distributed globally?

Sociological and technological challenges to be met

Information on our Web Site

National e-Science Centre http://www.nesc.ac.uk/Mission, Foundation, Locations, Staff, ResourcesRegister interest, Mailing lists, NeSCForgeRegional associations and CollaborationsNews, NoticesPresentations and Lectures http://www.nesc.ac.uk/presentations/

e-Science Institute http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/Events (Future and Past)Visitor Programme

UK e-ScienceMap and Index of Centres http://www.nesc.ac.uk/centres/Technical Papers http://www.nesc.ac.uk/technical_papers/Index of >100 Projects http://www.nesc.ac.uk/projects/Task Forces http://www.nesc.ac.uk/teams/

General InformationGlossary, Bibliography,Who’s whoE-Science job vacancies

Questions?

www.nesc.ac.uk