User Forum 2011: Programme preview
Viviane Li finds out what the programme has to offer
What is your interest in the European grid? Whatever the answer, make some space in your diary from 11–14 April. This is when the first EGI User Forum takes place in Vilnius, Lithuania. No matter what your role is within the grid community, you will find sessions relevant to you.
“The idea this year is to combine the EGI [European Grid Infrastructure] user forum with the EMI [European Middleware Initiative] technical conference, bringing together the two aspects of infrastructure and middleware,” says Alberto Di Meglio, project director of EMI and one of the 29 programme committee members. “We have a balanced mix, so users can see how these aspects are integrated to provide a service directly usable for them.”
Even the best infrastructures and middleware stacks (software packages that link together the hardware resources) are incomplete without you – the users, developers and system administrators. With EGI.eu now acting as a point of coordination for the NGIs, the grid community can have a more formal voice in this year’s forum.
“There are many training sessions delivered by partners in the grid community as a part of the core programme,” adds Gergely Sipos of EGI.eu, another committee member. “The new programme is designed to empower different communities. This is enabled by the new EGI structure.”
EGI.eu will deliver sessions on services for virtual research communities, highlight success stories, discuss dissemination and policy. There are different presentations, tutorials and workshops aimed at researchers, programmers, developers, system operators and technology providers. The range of topics and the variety of formats will allow wider participation than before. You can pick and mix sessions according to your interests.
EMI, one of the forum’s co-hosts, will run their first ‘meet the experts’ session. Di Meglio explains what they hope to achieve: “We want all users to have the opportunity to talk with us informally about their needs and formulate some concrete requirements for future development. We want to create a strong and more direct link between us – the technical providers – and users of the technology.”
EMI will also be launching ‘EMI-1’, a software designed to provide compatibility between middleware stacks – gLite (Lightweight Middleware for Grid Computing), ARC (Advanced Resource Connector), UNICORE (Uniform Interface for Computing Resources) and dCache.
With 154 abstracts accepted, there is a packed timetable of sessions delivered in parallel from six or seven conference rooms each day, not counting the poster and demonstration areas. The programme includes talks about the grid’s applications in biomechanical markers, molecular simulations, a paleobiology database, electrophysiology, the Large Hadron Collider, and simulations for social science.
Coming to the forum will also help you to use the infrastructure in better ways. You can find out how to optimise workflow, implement data management technology, self-evaluate e-Infrastructure funded projects, attend user support services and a wide variety of workshops. You can also explore aspects of Distributed Computing Infrastructure, Desktop Grid, Virtualisation and Cloud computing.
The diversity of the forum is a great opportunity to network with new communities, as well as to catch up with members of your own Virtual Organisation face-to-face.
See you in Vilnius!
