UK e-Science Call for iVDGL Computer Science Fellowships
|
UK e-Science Call for iVDGL Computer Science Fellowships |
|
Overview[Note: This document also appears in pdf format.] The e-Science Core Programme is inviting applications for Computer Science Fellowships with the International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) in GRID technologies. The e-Science programme is a focus for the promotion and advance of UK involvement in GRID and global GRID developments, and the International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) is a project at the forefront of the US Grid effort involving many of the world’s leading Grid researchers. The iVDGL, funded by NSF for $13.65M over five years (directed in the US by Paul Avery and Ian Foster), is a consortium of 15 universities and four national laboratories to be constructed in partnership with the European Union, Japan, Australia and later other world regions, will form the world's first true "global Grid," providing an integrated computational resource for major scientific experiments in physics, astronomy, biology, and engineering. IntroductionAs part of the wider picture of the e-Science programme, a longer-term strategy to provide an output of highly trained young researchers with excellent skills in GRID technologies is required. Therefore, the e-Science Programme, run by the EPSRC on behalf of the other Research Councils, announces a call for fellowships with the International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) in GRID technologies. The programme is looking to place young researchers, with the requisite computer science background with the International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) project in the US. FellowshipsEach fellowship will consist of a 2-year computer science fellowship with partners in the iVDGL project, with the option of a following 1-year fellowship in the UK. A list of the available positions, with details of the US institution hosting the fellowship and an outline of the work plan envisaged, can be found at http://www.ivdgl.org/. The fellowship will allow for salary costs for the Fellow plus an allowance for travel to meetings. For more details of the International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) project, please see; http://www.ivdgl.org/ . The universities participating in the project are University of Florida, University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology, University of California at San Diego, Indiana University, Boston University, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Pennsylvania State University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Northwestern University, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Brownsville, Hampton University, Salish Kootenai College. National Laboratories include Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory. Participating are Computer Science groups and the applications are High Energy Physics, astronomy and gravitational wave searches. Having spent two years in US, the successful candidate will then have the opportunity to spend the next year transferring the e-Science skills they have developed back to the UK by means of a one year research fellowship at a UK HEI of their choice. To obtain the second fellowship in the UK, the successful fellow will be expected to submit a proposal for a one-year fellowship to the EPSRC in the UK within one year of the initial award being made. The award of the iVDGL and UK fellowships will therefore be expected to run consecutively. Selection CriteriaMinimum requirements for candidates are an upper second-class degree or better in Computer Science (or a related subject), or be in the final year of their degree course, with candidates with Masters, Doctoral or Post Doctoral experience also welcomed. Proposals should be clearly marked ‘e-Science Programme: International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) Computer Science Fellowships’. There will be three closing dates for this call;
Faxed submissions are not acceptable. Investigators in Universities and similar institutions and the Central Laboratory for the Research Councils are eligible to apply to this programme. The candidate must also provide the following paperwork;
There is no standard form to be completed. Selection ProcedureThe selection process will also be a single stage process after each closing date. An expert panel will be convened by the e-Science Programme together with the iVDGL project Directors to consider whether the candidates meet the aims of the e-Science programme. Candidates must satisfy all the criteria described in the Selection Procedure. Applications made directly to iVDGL will NOT be considered as part of this scheme. Applications must be made through EPSRC to:
What is the International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) project? The National Science Foundation announced Sep. 25, 2001 that it is awarding $13.65M over five years to a consortium of 15 universities and four national laboratories to create the International Virtual Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL). The iVDGL, to be constructed in partnership with the European Union, Japan, Australia and later other world regions, will form the world's first true "global Grid," providing an integrated computational resource for major scientific experiments in physics, astronomy, biology, and engineering. The iVDGL will serve as a unique resource for scientific applications requiring access to Petabytes of data (1 Petabyte = 1 million Gigabytes) and beyond. The NSF award, which is sponsored by the Physics Division within the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, is augmented by $2M in university contributions plus funding for Computer Science Fellows by the UK e-Science Programme. In addition, international partners are investing more than $20M in sites around the world to build computational and storage sites as part of the international consortium. Paul Avery of the University of Florida and Ian Foster of the University of Chicago will serve as the US Directors. The iVDGL as a global resource: The iVDGL will provide a global computing resource for several leading international experiments in physics and astronomy, including the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and the proposed National Virtual Observatory (NVO). For these projects, particularly the CERN experiments whose members number in the thousands and whose data collections are expected to reach 100 Petabytes early in the next decade, the powerful global computing resources available through the iVDGL will enable new classes of data intensive algorithms that will lead to new scientific results. Other application groups affiliated with the NSF supercomputer centres and EU projects will also take advantage of its resources. Sites in Europe and the U.S. will be linked together by a multi-gigabit per second transatlantic link funded by a companion project in Europe. Grid Operations Centre: The effective operation of a distributed system such as iVDGL requires certain global services and centralized monitoring, management, and support functions. These functions will be coordinated by the iVDGL Grid Operations Centre (iGOC) located at Indiana University, with technical effort provided by iGOC staff, iVDGL site staff, and the CS support teams. The iGOC will operate iVDGL as a NOC manages a network, providing a single, dedicated point of contact for iVDGL status, configuration, and management, and addressing overall robustness issues. Education and outreach: Three minority-serving institutions (MSIs) will participate in the creation and operation of the iVDGL: University of Texas at Brownsville, Hampton University and Salish Kootenai College. Each MSI institution has some existing research, computing, and networking infrastructure to build on, and has ties to our partner physics applications and prior involvement with education and outreach activities. Additionally, computer science and physical science students at all participating institutions will contribute in a concrete, hands-on way to the creation, operation, and scientific exploitation of the iVDGL. Participation: Management of the iVDGL will be integrated with that of the GriPhyN Project, funded by NSF in September 2000 for $11.9M. GriPhyN and Particle Physics Data Grid (PPDG) will provide the basic R&D and software toolkits needed for the laboratory. The European Union DataGrid is also a major participant and will contribute basic technologies and tools. The iVDGL will be based on the open Grid infrastructure provided by the Globus Toolkit and will also build on other technologies such as Condor resource management tools. The universities participating in the project are University of Florida, University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology, University of California at San Diego, Indiana University, Boston University, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Pennsylvania State University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Northwestern University, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Brownsville, Hampton University, Salish Kootenai College. National Laboratories include Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory.
Map illustrating the US partners in the iVDGL project For more information on the International Virtual Data Grid Laboratory, please see http://www.ivdgl.org/; or contact the US Directors;
What is the e-Science Programme and what is the Importance of GRID Fellowships?The Spending Review of 2000 announced a total of nearly £120M for a new e-Science initiative. This initiative is concerned with the development of the key IT infrastructure to support the increasingly global research collaborations that are emerging in many areas of science and engineering. Such e-science collaborations will be based on the shared use of some combination of very large computing resources, enormous data collections and remote access to specialised facilities or sensor data. The need for such experiments to access extreme computing resources and/or multi-petabyte datasets, together with their associated visualisation requirements, will drive the development of the next generation IT infrastructure. There is a global initiative to develop the underpinning ‘Grid’ software based on either on an Open Source model, such as the Linux movement, or on Open Standards, such as the World Wide Web Consortium, or some combination of the two approaches. Provided this Grid middleware can be made sufficiently robust, secure and adaptable, there is real potential for commercial applications supporting such things as Virtual Organisations, Knowledge Management, Decision Support and e-Business. The e-Science initiative is therefore allocating £74M for the development of e-Science Pilots across all the Research Councils. These are intended to be applications that really stretch and challenge technology either by the scale of the computing challenge or by the volume and visualisation of data or some combination of the two. In addition £9M has been earmarked towards the purchase of a multi-Teraflop Supercomputer. Grid access to such a facility will be essential to maintain a competitive High Performance Computing community. The remaining £15M is allocated to the ‘e-Science Core Programme’. This amount has been supplemented by a further £20M from DTI to encourage the participation of UK industry in the development of the Grid infrastructure. The Programme complements the Application Pilots in focussing on the development of generic Grid middleware that can support a range of application areas. The e-Science Core Programme is managed on behalf of all the Research Councils by EPSRC. Professor Tony Hey has been seconded from his position as Dean of Engineering at the University of Southampton to take on the role of Director of the Core Programme. The budget for the programme is £50M over 3 years, made up of £15M from OST, £20M from DTI with a contribution of £15M from industry. The goal of the Core Programme is to identify and develop generic Grid Middleware in collaboration with industry. The Director will work with the e-Science Directors of the other Research Councils to support their e-Science Pilot applications and elicit the computing, data storage and bandwidth requirements of each Council. He will also work closely with UKERNA in ensuring that SuperJanet4 can meet the demands of the UK Grid. The Core Programme will be structured around 6 key elements:
As part of the wider picture of the e-Science programme, a longer-term strategy to provide an output of highly trained young researchers with excellent skills in GRID technologies is required. Therefore, the e-Science Programme, run by the EPSRC on behalf of the other Research Councils, announces calls for Computer Science fellowships with the International Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) in GRID technologies, and at CERN in GRID technologies. The programme is looking to place young researchers, with the requisite computer science background, for 2 years at various US Centres involved in the iVDGL Project in the US or at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, including an offer of a subsequent 1 year fellowship at a UK Institution. For more information about the UK e-Science programme, please see http://www.research-councils.ac.uk/escience/, or contact;
|
