e-Science at the Royal Academy of Engineering Annual Exhibition: New Frontiers f

Thursday 26 June 2008

John Gordon talks to Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

The Royal Academy of Engineeringtoday held its annual Soiree and Exhibition at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

During the day the exhibition was open to STFC staff and visitors, while in the evening it was attended by the Royal Academy of Engineering fellows and their guests, including HRH The Duke of Kent.

Many STFC e-Science staff took turns to explain their subject on a stand in the exhibition. In the past RAL computing developments designed to meet the requirements of scientific research have produced technologies which have gone on to have a significant commercial impact. These include technologies for computer graphics and animation, and computer networking, for which research started in the 1960s lead to today's ubiquitous CGI and Internet. It is intended that such impact will be achieved by the grid technologies which STFC e-Science is developing to meet the requirements of today's scientific research. The achievements of the UK National Grid Service (link opens in a new window), the CERN LHC Computing Grid (link opens in a new window) and the EGEE Grid (link opens in a new window) in particle physics, computational chemistry, and biosciences were well received by the audience. The demonstration of the GridPP Real Time Monitor (link opens in a new window) presented on the Magic Planet globe (link opens in a new window) was popular with many visitors.