Local Organizing Committee
African School of Fundamental Physics and its Applications
Dear Member,
We represent a grass-roots organization that fosters Grid computing
expertise among institutions that have strong research programs. Our organization,
called DOSAR (Distributed Organization for Scientific and Academic Research), sees
the planned session of the African School of Fundamental Physics and its
Applications in Ghana during July 15 – August 4, 2012 as a great opportunity to
foster collaboration between our institutions and yours in Africa on Grid computing
technology and applications.
Since the African School emphasizes increasing proficiency in physics and related
applications, such as information technology, through our partnership, we would
like to reach many students within Ghana and Africa with emphasis on Grid
computing installation, maintenance, and applications.
DOSAR envisions a partnership that both includes and reaches beyond student
education. We would like to build a scientific computing cloud within Ghana. We
would like to enhance the partnership by bringing in open source software to run
Grid/cloud applications for academic scientific research, including collaboration
with LHC experiments and its high energy physics work.
Preceding the African School, we would like to assess the existing facilities and
suggest any necessary additions. We would then aid in the installation of the
software needed to run Grid /cloud applications and the suggested hardware. We
propose to host a workshop to build expertise in Africa on expanding and
maintaining the Grid site a week adjacent to the African School. Sessions on these
topics would also be presented at the African School, including presentations
designed for students by DOSAR experts.
After the Grid computing site has been established and the workshop and school
have concluded, DOSAR would like to continue maintaining ties with the institutions
in Ghana, providing support and mutual benefit to both parties.
DOSAR has partnered successfully in the past with institutions in Brazil and South
Africa to establish Grid sites and conduct tutorials on Grid applications and
operation. We have used the Open Science Grid (OSG) software stack to establish
these sites and they are currently operational and fully functioning Grid sites. To
learn more about DOSAR and our previous partnerships in Brazil and South Africa,
see: http://www-hep.uta.edu/dosar/
We look forward to collaborating with the African School in Ghana and expanding
our vision to fit your perspective and needs.
Sincerely,