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[Swarm Modelling] Project on GRID-mediated access to agent-based models
From: |
Nick Gotts |
Subject: |
[Swarm Modelling] Project on GRID-mediated access to agent-based models |
Date: |
Tue, 18 Feb 2003 17:54:13 +0000 |
Apologies if you receive multiple copies of the message below. Since FEARLUS is
written using the Swarm libraries, I thought members of this list might well be
interested.
Regards,
Nick Gotts
Dear Colleagues,
As you are no doubt aware, one of the key problems for computer
modelling in academic research is that of repeatability. For novel
approaches such as agent-based modelling in particular, researchers
need to be able to examine, experiment with, and use each others'
models, (and to take the time to do so) if we are to go beyond
producing and describing interesting models, to their effective use in
social science and policy contexts. We consider that emerging "Grid"
related technologies (http://www.gridforum.org/,
http://www.semanticgrid.org/) have the potential to support a new
level of collaborative/competitive interactions between research teams
in agent-based modelling and related areas, and write to invite your
participation in a proposed pilot project, exploring the potential of
the Grid to contribute to e-Social Science. This is a matter of
urgency, as we have an application deadline of 26 February to meet.
In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Aberdeen, we are
writing a proposal to a UK funding body, for a 12-18 month pilot
project that would involve making the FEARLUS model of land-use change
(http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/fearlus/) available via Grid technologies,
specifically the emerging Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA),
which aims to integrate Grid and Web service concepts and technologies
(http://www.globus.org/ogsa/). This would allow us to make our model
available as a service for other researchers to use, with the effect
that they could run large-scale experiments with FEARLUS on
high-performance computing facilities without having to download and
compile it. The pilot project is being designed with a view to
forming an EU FP6 Integrated Project to do the same with many other
models.
The proposed work will include: (1) describing FEARLUS as a Grid
service, so that remote users can discover and invoke it, and obtain
interpretable results; (2) maintaining histories of interactions with
users, allowing experiments to be replayed and results to be
aggregated; (3) managing the Grid service, to control user access and
allocation of resources. It would assist us greatly in this initial
project if we could identify a few colleagues willing to be named in
our pilot project proposal, as agreeing to help to assess the planned
Grid deployment of FEARLUS, in one of two possible roles:
(a) In a research role, either comparing results from your own model
with those from FEARLUS, checking results in FEARLUS publications, or
exploring FEARLUS's capabilities and limitations as a stage in the
process of designing a new model.
(b) In a teaching role, using FEARLUS as part of an appropriate
lecture course (FEARLUS has already been used in teaching at
postgraduate level).
Agreeing to be named in the proposal would not constitute or imply a
legal or contractual obligation to take part in the assessment
process, but of course we would want to name anyone who did not expect
to do so. The requirements of doing so would be a negotiable amount of
time for the work involved in (a) or (b) above, and to give us
feedback from that work (perhaps by answering a questionnaire); and
possibly a willingness to install a thin client to access FEARLUS over
the Grid.
Those willing to be named will (if the application succeeds) be
consulted about the facilities to be made available, to maximise the
benefit to their own teaching and/or research. We believe they will
benefit from our experience of planning and undertaking the Grid
deployment of an agent-based model, and will be in an improved
position to join in potential Grid-related and e-Social Science
projects - ours and others'. Specifically, we would hope they would be
interested in joining us in the follow-up proposal to the EU. Although
it is unlikely we would be able to pay you for your time in
participating in this exercise, any other expenses incurred would be
reimbursed.
If you are interested in getting involved, please could you let us
know as soon as possible (but no later than 24 February) which role
you would be prepared to take (or indeed if there is another role you
can think of that you would prefer). Naturally we will not include
your name without explicit permission, and are ready to answer
questions to the best of our ability.
Yours,
Nick Gotts and Gary Polhill
Nick Gotts
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute
Aberdeen AB15 8QH
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1224 498200 ext. 2229
Fax: +44 (0)1224 311556
e-mail: address@hidden
http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/fearlus
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Nick Gotts <=