Grid computing combines geographically distributed computation resources to carry out high performance computing; it is particularly suitable for collaborative, interdisciplinary, and experimental projects. To take advantage of the power of grid computing, users have typically been required to manage low-level infrastructure details and to run programs using non-intuitive command-line execution. This project is responding to the need to make the programming interfaces easier to use in the grid computing community generally, but especially for undergraduate students who become the next generation of professional users. In particular, this project is exploring the use of a recently introduced grid-computing workflow editor for teaching distributed computing and for using grid computing resources.
Workflow editors provide graphical interfaces for users and enable distributed computations to be constructed and executed without the need for low level programming or command-line interaction. Workflow editors are seen to contribute to the success of grid computing by allowing scientists of varying disciplines to create solutions to their problems using the resources of grid computing with little or no programming experience.
The Principal Investigators in this project have broad experience and have published widely in grid computing. The materials developed in this project are being assessed at the two primary collaborating institutions that are developing the materials and testing them locally and collectively, at one additional institution that is evaluating the developed materials in a more diverse educational setting, and by an independent professional educational evaluator. The materials are being distributed in part through a statewide televideo network that will reach sixteen state universities.
