National University of Scienc es & Technology

1. National University of Sciences & Technology Grid Research in Pakistan

2. Researchers in many locations need to share resources FTP, telnet…. blood, sweat and tears and little support for collaboration Scientific instruments, data stores and computers in many locations Before Grids There must be a better way of doing this!!!

3. MIDDLEWARE Mobile Access Supercomputer, PC-Cluster Workstation Data-storage, Sensors, Experiments Visualising Internet, networks Middleware

4. Researchers in many locations need to share resources Resources connect to “The Grid” Scientific instruments, data stores and computers in many locations With Grids Slide derived from EDG / LCG tutorials

5. Improve Efficiency Reduce Costs Provide Reliability & Availability IncreaseCapacity SupportHeterogeneous Systems Reduce Time to Results Enable Collaboration Motivations for Grid Computing

6. Challenges for Research and Industry • Sensitive data, sensitive applications (medical patient records) • Different organizations get different benefits • Accounting, who pays for what (sharing!) • Security policies: consistent and enforced across the grid ! • Lack of standards prevent interoperability of components • Current IT culture is not predisposed to sharing resources • Not all applications are grid-ready or grid-enabled • Open source is not equal open source (read the small print) • SLAs based on open source (liability?) • “Static” licensing model don’t embrace grid • Protection of intellectual property • Legal issues (e.g. FDA, HIPAA, multi-country grids)

7. Challenges for Research and Industry • Sensitive data, sensitive applications (medical patient records) • Different organizations get differentbenefits • Accounting, who pays for what (sharing!) • Securitypolicies: consistent and enforced across the grid ! • Lack of standardsprevent interoperability of components • Current IT culture is not predisposed tosharing resources • Not all applications are grid-ready orgrid-enabled • Open sourceis not equal open source (read the small print) • SLAs based on open source (liability?) • “Static”licensingmodel don’t embrace grid • Protection ofintellectual property • Legalissues (e.g. FDA, HIPAA, multi-country grids)

8. Establishment of Grid Node at NIIT • Established under the umbrella of “Center for High Performance Scientific Computing” at NIIT • Aims include: • Run a production Grid node • Support science and engineering • Conduct research, development, and evaluation of parallel programming languages, libraries, and paradigms • Produce experts in this area • Web: http://hpc.niit.edu.pk

10. Monitoring the NIIT HPC Grid

11. MPJ Express • MPJ Express is a software that enables writing parallel applications on the Grid • First released in September 2005 under LGPL (an open-source licence): • Approximately 1000 users all around the world • The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory • Lawrence Livermore National Lab • University Malaysia Sabah: Prog Hog • On going collaboration with University of Reading, UK • Website: http://mpj-express.org

12. James Gosling (Founder of Java) Says…

13. Cosmological Simulations • We have produced a Java version of Gadget-2, a massively parallel structure formation code • The code has been used in “The Millennium Simulation”: • Considered as “the” largest ever model of the Universe • Follows the evolution of ten billion “dark matter” particles • The simulation ran on a supercomputer for almost a month

14. Blue Brain Project • Launched by Brain Mind Institute, EPFL and IBM corporation to make computer models of information processing capabilities of the brain based on the work of 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine. • Uses 8th fastest computer in the world (source www.top500.org International Supercomputing Organisation) • Landmark project for Biology, Medicine, Mathematics and Computer Science • Numerous areas for collaboration for various institutes at NUST

15. NUST-EPFL Collaboration • Four Students working (worked) at EPFL – all funded by EPFL • Two students working at NIIT. One of them scheduled to visit EPFL for 6 months in Nov 06 – funded by NUST • Graduate student intake for the future collaboration - Under Progress • Prof Henry Markram is scheduled to visit NUST for further strengthening of this research Initiative

16. Malaysian Collaboration • Dr Wahab Minister Jamalidin Jarjis • Senior Faculty from Multimedia University and members of Multi Media Super Corridor Visited EPFL • Establishment of Blue Brain Node in Malaysia • Project comparable to Human Genome scale

17. Recent Developments at NIIT • Two faculty members placed in Industry • IT student intake enhanced to 200 • Four Industry projects in progress • Two NIIT faculty members proceeding to USA for summer teaching

18. Recent Developments at NIIT • Two Japanese Professors joined NIIT for two years teaching and research • 13 Research papers published during past six months • One indigenous product Developed -- looking for venture capital? • Another indigenous product will be ready by end Aug 07

19. INDUSTRY SPONSORED LABS AT NIIT • NCR established Dataware housing and Data mining lab at NIIT • IBM Open Source Resource Center --- Hardware including E-server, Web Sphere Server, Lotus Exchange Server Donated • INTEL established a state-of-the-art computer lab at NIIT • IBM established 1 Mil USD funded Open Source Resource center

20. CONCLUSION • Coming together is a beginning • Keeping together is a progress • Working together is a success

21. Thank You