Grid Projects

Many environmental problems, such as transport of pollutants, development of remediation strategies, weathering, and containment of high-level radioactive waste, require an understanding of fundamental mechanisms and processes at a molecular level. Computer simulations at a molecular level can give considerable progress in our understanding of these processes. The vision of the eMinerals project is to combine developments in atomistic simulation tools with emerging grid computing technologies in order to stretch the potential for undertaking simulation studies under increasingly realistic conditions, and which can scan across a wide range of physical and chemical parameters. The eMinerals project brings together simulation scientists, applications developers and computer scientists to develop UK escience/grid capabilities for molecular simulations of environmental issues. A common set of simulation tools is being developed for a wide range of applications, and the integrated compute/data grid environment that is being established will lead to a signifcant leap in the capabilities of these powerful scientific tools. This work is supported by an effort to support the working of the eMinerals project team as a fully functional virtual organisation and collaboratory.

The Grid Resource Monitoring (GridRM) project's focus is to provide a generic open-source resource monitoring architecture, designed specifically for the Grid. Unlike many other monitoring systems, GridRM is designed to monitor Grid resources, rather than the applications that execute on a Grid.

SORMA deals with the development of methods and tools for an efficient market-based allocation of resources, through a self-organising resource management system, using market-driven models supported by extensions for Grid infrastructures. Topics addressed include open Grid markets, economics-driven Grid middleware, and intelligent tools. Brokerage of resources over the Grid will benefit Grid consumers, resource owners, outsourcing providers, and new intermediaries.