Integrating eInfrastructure and scientific instrumentation

While Grid technologies are a tool of enormous importance to the academic sector, the needs of scientific communities must not be neglected either. We spoke to Norbert Meyer of the DORII project, who explained how his initiative’s work allows scientists to integrate infrastructure and instrumentation.

 One of the most pressing issues faced by researchers into Grid computing is exactly how eInfrastructures should support the communities they were developed to serve. This includes not only scientific communities, but also less rigidly-defined groups which could potentially use them in the future. “When we talk about infrastructure we generally mean computing infrastructure, visualisation machines and infrastructure for data management. However, there are also some communities which use additional equipment,” says Norbert Meyer, coordinator of the DORII (Deployment of Remote Instrumentation Infrastructure) project, an EC-backed initiative working to deploy eInfrastructures for new scientific communities. “These communities will often want to connect it to an infrastructure, and so the integration of instrumentation is an important goal. This includes lab equipment and different kinds of sensors – for example cameras, floats or gliders – used to monitor areas like the Mediterranean sea.”

DORII’s current focus is on delivering reliable infrastructure for use in production environments, and Meyer says they are keen to ensure that it is flexible enough to meet the needs of any new sectors which show an interest in their work. This user-centred, flexible approach ensures that DORII’s work is capable of meeting the needs of a broad spectrum of research disciplines. The project aims to serve different areas of the scientific community, a process in which Meyer says user needs are taken fully into account. “We have tried to show that we have different types of instrumentation which are relevant to different areas of scientific research. There are full partners from physics, representatives from environmental science and there is also an SME partner doing research in Spain,” he says. “Now the question is: we have this prototype, are users satisfied? There will be a report on DORII and research into levels of user satisfaction. We will use the results to assess whether users were satisfied, and as a guide to make further improvements to the DORII software.”

Contact Norbert Meyer, Head of the Supercomputing Department in Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, and Project Leader for the DORII project, at meyer@man.poznan.pl

Published: Monday, 9th November 2009

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