News

The Computing Grid comes to Durham for major academic gathering

(1 July 2005)

Some of the world's leading experts in developing a computing Grid are meeting in Durham this week (4th-6th July) to hear about the latest developments and exchange new ideas.

The Grid is the successor to the World Wide Web, which was also invented by particle physicists working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

The GridPP Meeting brings together 80 of the leading experts from the UK community of particle physicists, who have already succeeded in building a working Grid testbed, with over 1,000 computers and equipment at 17 sites in the UK.

This Grid allows scientists to access data and processing power seamlessly, wherever they are. It is linked to other prototype Grids worldwide, and has been tested by analysing data from US particle physics experiments in which the UK is involved.

GridPP is a collaboration of around 100 researchers in 19 UK University particle physics groups, CCLRC and CERN. The six-year, \x{FFFD}33m project, funded by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), began in 2001.

The main aim of the meeting is to review the developments necessary to make sure that the Grid will be ready to analyse the wealth of data that will be produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is currently being built at CERN and which will be the world's largest particle accelerator when it starts operation in 2007.

The LHC will allow scientists to penetrate further into the structure of matter and recreate the conditions prevailing in the early universe, just after the Big Bang. But the four experiments at the LHC will produce more data than any previous coordinated human endeavour - 10 Petabytes each year, equivalent to a stack of CDs twice the height of Mount Everest. Careful analysis of all of this complex data will be required to look for some of the most elusive constituents of current physics, such as the Higgs particle and supersymmetry.

In the lead up to 2007, the UK particle physics grid will grow to the equivalent of 10,000 PCs. The infrastructure in the UK will be continually tested, both by current experiments and by the LHC data challenges to ensure that the final system is ready by 2007.

The meeting is being hosted by the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) and the Department of Physics. The IPPP provides Durham’s link to the Grid as part of the ScotGrid sub-project, collaboration between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Durham.

Professor Nigel Glover, who is Deputy Director of the IPPP at Durham University and leader of the ScotGrid project said : ``This is a really high-profile and large gathering of some of the world's leading experts in developing grid technology for the purpose of exchanging news and views on the latest developments and technologies. Having the meeting in Durham is recognition of the important role played by Durham scientists in the development of the Grid.''

The delegates are based in Grey College and talks take place in the Sir James Duff Lecture Theatre in the Physics Department on the University's Science Site off South Road, Durham.

For further information contact : Professor Nigel Glover, Physics Department University of Durham, Tel 0191 334 3602 e-mail e.w.n.glover@durham.ac.uk

Media enquiries to : Tom Fennelly, Media Relations Officer, University of Durham, Tel 0191 334 6078 e-mail : t.p.fennelly@durham.ac.uk

Notes to editors :

1. Durham University has one of the leading physics departments in the UK. Each year there is an intake about 130 students to study for degrees in Physics, Physics & Astronomy, Theoretical Physics and Physics & Mathematics.

2. In the latest round of the HEFCE Quality Assurance Agency national assessment of university teaching standards we received the maximum possible rating of 24. Our research ranges from fundamental topics such as elementary particle physics and cosmology to applied areas which receive substantial support from industry.

3. The Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) aims to foster world-class research in particle physics phenomenology - the bridge between theory and experiment in the study of the tiny building blocks of all matter in the universe and of the fundamental forces that operate between them.

4. The IPPP is a joint venture of the University of Durham and the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). It is part of the Centre for Particle Theory in Durham, based jointly in the Departments of Mathematical Sciences and Physics, with a number of academic staff having joint appointments in the two Departments. The activities of the IPPP are overseen by a committee with both internal and external members.

5. Together with the Institute for Computational Cosmology, the IPPP forms part of the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics, housed in a new building adjacent to the Physics Department. The building was officially opened by the Prime Minister on 18th October 2002, and the Inauguration Day for the Ogden Centre took place on 15th November 2002.

6. The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) is the UK's strategic science investment agency. By directing, co-ordinating and funding research, education and training in particle physics and astronomy, PPARC delivers world-leading science, technologies and people for the UK. Based in Swindon, along with several other research councils, PPARC operates three scientific sites: the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh, the Isaac Newton Group in La Palma and the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii.

7. GridPP is the UK's contribution to analysing the deluge of data that will be produced by the LHC. It is a collaboration of around 100 researchers in 19 UK University particle physics groups, CCLRC and CERN. The six-year, \x{FFFD}33m project, funded by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC),began in 2001 and has been working in three main areas:

• developing applications that will allow particle physicists to submit their data to the Grid for analysis

• writing middleware, this will manage the distribution of computing jobs around the grid and deal with issues such as security.

• deploying computing infrastructure at sites across the UK, to build a prototype Grid.