Experiences in the National Institute
for Environmental eScience
Martin Dove
National Institute for Environmental eScience
and
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Outline of talk
Introducing the National Institute for Environmental
eScience
– Who are we?
– What do we do?
Experiences gained at the NIEeS
– What we have done to demonstrate escience
– Issues raised from our experiences
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
The NIEeS
Partnership between:
With the aim to support the development of
escience programmes within the environmental
science community
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Environmental eScience
From global ...
… to molecular
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Environmental eScience
Earth system
modelling
Pollution
Earth observation
Modelling
natural hazards
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Environmental issues
The study of environmental
processes includes data
gathering from field
studies, experiments, and
simulations.
It also involves significant
computing for modeling
and data analysis
eScience will have a significant impact
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Key elements of escience
Access to, and exploitation of, distributed computing
resources: “grid computing”
– Seamless secure access to resources
Location-independent access to data
– Well-described information about the data
(metadata)
– Secure access
Cross-institute collaborative environment: concept of
the “virtual organisation”
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
The NIEeS: what we do
The National Institute for
Environmental eScience was
established to play a role in
supporting the development of
the UK environmental escience
programme
This is achieved through supporting activities such as
workshops & courses, demonstration projects, and
supporting visitor & working group programmes
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Based in Cambridge
Based in the Centre for
Mathematical Sciences, and
co-located with the
Cambridge eScience Centre
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS web site
Focus on events and
training
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS web site
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS web site
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS staff (3 FTE)
Helen, Course Adminstrator (1/2 time)
Malcolm, Finances (1/2 time)
Stuart, Science Coordinator
Martin, Technical Coordinator
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS staff (3 FTE)
Helen, Course Adminstrator (1/2 time)
Malcolm, Finances (1/2 time)
Stuart, Science Coordinator
Martin, Technical Coordinator
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS staff (3 FTE)
Helen, Course Adminstrator (1/2 time)
Malcolm, Finances (1/2 time)
Stuart, Science Coordinator
Martin, Technical Coordinator
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS staff (3 FTE)
Helen, Course Adminstrator (1/2 time)
Malcolm, Finances (1/2 time)
Stuart, Science Coordinator
Martin, Technical Coordinator
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS staff (3 FTE)
Helen, Course Adminstrator (1/2 time)
Malcolm, Finances (1/2 time)
Stuart, Science Coordinator
Martin, Technical Coordinator
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Examples of events at NIEeS
Typically two day events, plus week-long summer
school and some one-day events. Examples include:
Discrete element modelling, visualisation, metadata,
remote sensing, nuclear waste, data formats, toxic
elements, XML, desktop grids, invasive species,
Access Grid, Earth System modelling, GIS,
collaborative tools, grid–database integration …
… mix of technologies and
application drivers
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS delegates: ‘totals’
Based on bookings, not counting events
not requiring registration
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS delegates: individuals
Now accounting for repeat visitors
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
NIEeS delegates: institutes represented
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Talks, training, practice & discussion
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Practical classes
Running grid
applications on the
UK Level 2 Grid
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Practical classes
We have run classroom demonstrations of:
Running fluid dynamics simulations on the
UK level 2 grid with parameter sweeps
Condor jobs
XML
OGSA-DAI
SRB and the CCLRC data portal
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Issues in running practical classes
Generating temporary X.509 digital certificates and
getting them accepted (we run our own certification
authority)
Getting temporary accounts generate on remote
services (e.g. on the SRB)
Guaranteeing quality of service on remote resources
(one bad experience!)
Guaranteeing on-demand access to remote resources
Prior experience/knowledge of students (computing
and escience)
Effort involved in setting up individual demonstrations
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Live lecture demonstrations
In many events we run live lecture demonstrations to
show escience to people
Desktop access grid
Portals
Running simple globus-job-run/Condor/Condor-G jobs
Workflow with Condor’s DAGman
Data management with Storage Resource Broker
Installing software (e.g. Condor)
Grid certificates
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Issues in running live demonstrations
Guaranteeing quality of service on remote resources
Guaranteeing on-demand access to remote resources
Guaranteeing the demonstration works every time!
GSI processes take time: nothing is instantaneous!
Firewall problems when lecturing away from home
Finding appropriate demonstrations (need to be quick
but relevant)
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Live national Access Grid demonstation
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Summary
The NIEeS has been ambitious in attempting to
demonstrate eScience technologies to the
environmental sciences “community”
We have set up a range of escience
demonstrations for classrooms and lectures
I have pointed out a number of issues
encountered in setting up demonstrations
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk
Acknowledgements
Colleagues in the NIEeS
Colleagues in the Cambridge eScience Centre and
the NERC eMinerals project
Funding from NERC
Speakers from range of institutes, including universities,
CCLRC, escience centres, some industries, NERC
institutes, EU and US escience teams
NIEeS
http://www.niees.ac.uk