Telescience Portal Development at the University of California, San Diego

For over the last decade, researchers at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR, http://ncmir.ucsd.edu) have been developing and implementing novel technologies to propel collaborative research via a high throughput, remotely accessible environment. Through the integration of pioneering research in remote instrumentation research (known as TelemicroscopyTM) and Grid based distributed computing and data management, this group demonstrated this vision in the context of The TelescienceTM Project (https://telescience.ucsd.edu).

Telescience provides an end-to-end, single sign-on Grid-based infrastructure and portlet-based user interface solution for biomedical image analysis and structure�function correlation that integrates users with resources and applications with unified security and without prohibitive complexity. The underlying Telescience infrastructure for security, computation and data management is extended to the science-specific applications developer via the Application to Middleware Interaction Component (ATOMIC) services layer. ATOMIC streamlines application-Grid integration by allowing applications developers to interact with the Grid via a unified toolkit where autonomously developed component software is organized by function. The GridSphere Project provides the interface layer, where the natural scientific process is enabled for the end-user. More than just simplified interfaces to Grid middleware tools that just replace command line arguments with easy-to-use check boxes and radio buttons, the use of the Gridsphere Framework with ATOMIC enables the transition to a richer user environment. The Telescience Project provides a user environment where Grid functionality is natively encapsulated within the natural scientific workflow and the need for explicit interfaces to specific middleware tools is greatly diminished.

For more information:
telescience.ucsd.edu