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Re: [Swarm Modelling] Project on GRID-mediated access to agent-based mod
From: |
Nick Gotts |
Subject: |
Re: [Swarm Modelling] Project on GRID-mediated access to agent-based models |
Date: |
Wed, 19 Feb 2003 11:19:54 +0000 |
Dear Russell,
Thanks very much for your message. I'll send a draft of the "Case for Support"
we're writing in the next few days; this will set out the role we see the
"assessors" as performing in more detail. You can give us any comments or
criticisms, and confirm whether you are willing to be named as an assessor, and
if so, whether in relation to research, teaching, or both.
Best regards,
Nick
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
>>> Russell Standish <address@hidden> 19-Feb-03 4:10:47 AM >>>
Dear Nick,
I would be interested in trying this out. We have some
experience in using swarm, so should be able to run your model as a
check. We also have a watching brief on Grid technologies, and I'm
interested to see how ABM perform over grids.
Cheers
Nick Gotts wrote:
>
> 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
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Swarm-Modelling has migrated to address@hidden, please use this
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