NIEeS Summer School 2003, 7-11 July 2003

General information

The NIEeS Summer School 2003 will take place in Cambridge on 7-11 July 2003. The idea of this year's summer school is to look in detail at some simple grid solutions for environmental science computations, with the aim of equipping each participant to be able to run the same tools as part of their research programme in their own institutes.

The NIEeS Summer School will primarily be aimed at post-doctoral and senior post-graduate workers who use computer modelling of any form in their research. It is assumed that the participants have a working knowledge of unix, but there will be no expectation that they will have a knowledge of particular programming languages or of any of the grid tools.

The programme will consist of morning lectures and afternoon practical sessions, with a number of invited lectures to provide illustrations of the tools and to give a wider perspective of the UK environmental escience programme.

Programme, 7-11 July

The programme begins with registration prior to lunch time on Monday 7th July, and ends at lunch time on Friday 11th July.

Monday from 12.00 Registration and lunch (12.30-2.00)
Monday afternoon Introductory lectures on the theme of the grid concept:
2.00-2.10 Welcome and introduction (Martin Dove, NIEeS)
2.10-2.40 Introduction to escience and grid concepts, including definitions of key examples (Mark Hayes, Cambridge eScience Centre)
2.40-3.20 Examples of escience applications (Andy Parker, Cambridge eScience Centre)
3.20-3.45 Coffee/tea break
3.45-4.15 Examples of applications from environmental eScience (Martin Dove)
4.15-4.30 Summary of aims of summer school (Martin Dove)
5.00-6.00 Punt trip along Cambridge backs
6.30 Evening meal in Churchill College
Tuesday morning Lectures on distributed computing and the condor approach to utilising spare computing capacity:
9.30-10.15 Introduction to distributed computing (Jon Crowcroft, Cambridge)
10.15-11.00 Introduction to Condor (Mark Calleja, Cambridge, and Paul Wilson, UCL)
11.00-11.30 Coffee break
11.30-12.30 Installing Condor with live demo for both Linux and Windows (Mark Calleja, Paul Wilson)
12.30-1.30 Lunch
1.30-2.30 Using condor with live demo, including compiling programs and linking to Condor libraries (Mark Calleja, Paul Wilson)
Tuesday afternoon
(from 2.30)		 Practical session on installing and using condor, 2.30-4.30
Walking tour of Cambridge, 5.00-6.00
Evening meal in Churchill College, 6.30
Wednesday morning Lectures on grid computing:
9.30-10.15 Introduction to grid computing (Rik Tyer, Daresbury escience centre)
10.15-11.00 The UK level 2 grid (Mark Heyes)
11.00-11.30 Coffee break
11.30-12.15 Certification and authorisation (Martin Keegan, NIEeS)
12.15-12.30 Discussion
12.30-1.30 Lunch
1.30-2.30 Introduction to data markup (Peter Murray-Rust, Cambridge)
Wednesday afternoon
(from 2.30)		 Practical session on grid computing, based on use of environmental fluid dynamics code, 2.30-5.00
Evening meal in Churchill College, 6.00
Evening activity
Thursday morning Lectures on computing in a grid environment:
9.30-10.15 Portals (Rik Tyer)
10.15-11.00 Introduction to grid middleware (Jonathan Giddy, Cardiff)
11.00-11.30 Coffee break
11.30-12.30 Introduction to Globus (Jonathan Giddy)
12.30-1.30 Lunch
Thursday afternoon
(from 1.30)		 Practical session on using large grid environment, including opportunity to view the Access Grid, 2.00-4.30
Tour of the Churchill archives, 5.30-6.30
Reception and dinner in Churchill College, 6.30
Friday morning Wrap-up sessions
9.30-10.30 Forward look (Mark Heyes)
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-12.30 Question & answer session, and opportunity to discuss participant's own research requirements
12.30-1.30 Lunch

For the practical sessions, we will use a set of standard examples, including an environmental fluid dynamics code, but we are keen to help people to develop their own codes for use in grid environments. Ideally participants will be able to discuss their codes with us before coming to assess whether they would be suitable for trying out at the summer school.

We would also like participants to tell us about their own work on the Friday (voluntary).

The programme includes a number of social events, including a tour of the archive of the Churchill papers, punt trip on the Cam, visit to historic Cambridge, and a go at the local laserquest.

Location

The Summer School will be held at both Churchill College Cambridge (accommodation and meals) and the Centre for Mathematical Sciences Cambridge (lectures and practical sessions). Lectures will take place in Meeting Room 4, Pavillion A, of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences. Lunches will usually be in Meeting Room 5. Practical sessions will take place in a nearby computer room.

Details of the location, including travel plans, can be obtained here.

Follow-on

It is anticipated that the NIEeS Summer School will generate some follow-on activities. We will discuss the sort of follow-one activities that could be arranged, such as follow-on visits to NIEeS in installation and usage. We could, for example, have a small session whereby we help people to remotely install OGSA on home computers. We could also have a follow-on user meeting where people share experience and problems, with the aim of providing some practical solutions.

Registration

There is no registration charge, and all accommodation and meals will be provided at no charge. Registration is essential and must be done using our on-line form.

Please book early to ensure that you are able to obtain a place.

Contact and further information

For information about registration, and all other types of queries, please contact the NIEeS office in the first instance.


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