CAREER: Development of a Unified Data-Management and Interaction Substrate: An Integrated Research and Education Program for Enabling Distributed Computational Collaboratories

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

CAREER - Development of a Unified Data-Management and Interaction Substrate: An Integrated research and Education Program for Enabling Distributed Computational Collaboratories Simulating complex physical systems is the fundamental goal of scientific computing. These simulations have become so advanced that they are now seen as a new mode of doing science (joining theory and experiment). However, creating, running, and sharing them is still not an easy task because of the complexities in the work. This project will study ways to improve that situation. The project will design, develop and evaluate a unified computational and interaction engine that can drive distributed computational collaboratories, and enable a new generation of realistic, interactive and immersive simulations. The fundamental innovation is the formulation of unifying multifaceted objects that can simultaneously support adaptive computations, interaction and control, analysis, and archival storage/retrieval. The engine provides a distributed data-management and interaction substrate for these objects to enable a "seamless" integration of scalable parallel and distributed computing, interactive computational steering, collaborative visualization and analysis, and scientific databases and data archives. In the educational arena, the project will establish a comprehensive program in applied parallel and distributed computation. This will include development of a set of graduate and undergraduate courses integrating software engineering and application-oriented parallel computing and an instructional program at the high-school and college freshman level built on the technologies developed by the research component.