:: Educational Goals

Through lectures, discussions, directed reading and the reports from leading researchers, students will receive an integrated and well-structured introduction to grid computing and its applications. This will expose principles, research challenges and leading views on the potential of general purpose e-Infrastructures. E-Infrastructures are a new approach to distributed computing which will support collaboration and resource sharing with significant economic advantages from amortising costs over a wide range of uses.
A practical exercise will run throughout the two weeks illustrating progressively more of the functions that may be achieved by e-Infrastructure and developing experience with several widely used technologies.
Students should complete the course with:

1. A good understanding of present technologies and their potential.
2. A conceptual framework on which to build deeper and further understanding - a basis for becoming an expert user or creator of future e-Infrastructure technology.
3. An appreciation, learned through experience, of good strategies for using these emerging technologies in their research.
4. Practical skills and confidence in using several of the available technologies.
5. Experience of forming a team and tackling a simulated research challenge.
6. A sharpened sensitivity to the research challenges and potential of grid computing.