The National Center for Scientific Calculations (CeCalCULA) in Venezuela recently hosted the Second Annual Latin-American Grid Workshop with participants from countries including Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, Venezuela and the United States. CeCalCULA is the first Venezuelan supercomputing center and has been organizing technology workshops like this one for the past 10 years.

Latin America is eager to embrace grid computing technologies to make the most of their computational resources. Grid computing offers increasing capabilities through resource sharing and access to increased knowledge through collaboration on the grid. Many Latin American countries realize that progress does not come by trying to build big HPC machines that rival the Department of Energy (DOE), but rather by adopting grid computing technologies to enhance their ability to access what resources they do have, to aggregate them, and to collaborate in terms of sharing and using them.

Workshop participants experienced first-hand the impact that Grid technologies have on e-science, and how improvements of computational grids relate to data storage, scientific visualization and remote collaboration.

"Through this workshop, we're exposing Latin American researchers to new concepts and practices of e-science and providing an arena for discussing the impact of e-sciences on research publication, distance collaboration, remote experimentation, data mining, e-learning and the process of knowledge production," said Luis Nunez, director of CeCalCULA. "Overall, the workshop hosted participants from seven different countries in Latin America and 35 students from Venezuela."

"High-speed networks provide the means to move data efficiently and effectively around the globe and are becoming available to more and more users," Nunez continued. "Therefore, it's vitally important that users of remote computational resources become aware of the latest technology and practices."

Jay Boisseau, Director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) said, "Our center has been supporting and participating in the Latin American workshops hosted by CeCalCULA for five years, and we were especially pleased to have four presenters this year as we ramp up our international collaboration activities. We look forward to increased collaborations throughout Latin America as a result of this workshop, not only in grid computing, but also in HPC and scientific visualization."

Boisseau added that education and training are important aspects of advanced computing technologies. Workshops like this provide an excellent opportunity to bring together students, grid administrators and scientific researchers to share expertise and knowledge.

This summer, a handful of CeCalCULA staff and students will visit TACC as part of the International Partners in Advanced Computing (IPAC) program. IPAC is an international collaboration created to encourage and support the use of advanced computational technologies to solve the world's most challenging science and engineering problems, and to ensure the exchange of information and knowledge across international boundaries and geographic regions.

The IPAC program creates strategic alliances that build and strengthen global research, development and educational collaborations in advanced computing.

IPAC members work together on academic and research opportunities, exchange academic materials and information, hold joint seminars and conferences, and provide increased access to advanced computing resources. Ultimately, the success of IPAC will be measured by the program's ability to disseminate information about developments in different regions, grow and extend its partnerships, foster new relationships with other academically based centers, share and extend its technological resources, and have a beneficial impact on the progress of science and engineering worldwide.

 

"We're excited to cooperate with TACC and other institutions in Latin America to train people in advanced computing, to disseminate Grid technologies and to share knowledge and expertise among our research communities," Nunez said. "Grid technologies inspire and enable research communities to share resources, information and knowledge. This is the goal of the TACC/ CeCalCULA association."

Several emerging projects are linking Latin America and Europe and will soon provide a testing ground for new services towards the advancement of e-science: Internet2 (http://www.internet2.org); the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (CLARA) (http://www.redclara.net); E- Infrastructure shared between Europe and Latin America (EELA) (http://www.eela-grid.org/); and High Energy Physics Latin American- European Network, HELEN, (http://www.roma1.infn.it/exp/helen/ among others.

For more information on CeCalCULA, please visit: http://www.cecalc.ula.ve/en/index.html

For more information on TACC's IPAC program, please contact Marcia Inger at: minger@tacc.utexas.edu.

 

 

Feature - June 8, 2006

-- Faith Singer-Villalobos