ISME: Integration & Steering of Multi-site Experiments to Assemble Engineering Body Scans : JISC

Start date: 1 November 2004

End date: 31 October 2006

Funding programme: Virtual Research Environments programme (phase 1)

Project website: http://pwLinda.mt.umist.ac.uk/~isme

JISC theme(s): e-Research

Taken together, modern instruments in the laboratory and international central facilities can build up a detailed, multi-faceted picture of the structure and behaviour of engineering components. At present, stitching together this information is a time consuming post mortem process, limiting the extent to which true interactive enquiry-based experiments can be undertaken. Software tools for fusing the acquired data have already been developed as part of a completed EPSRC research programme (GR/R38774/01), but the interrogation and visualisation of the assembled database can only be done at a single location. We will construct, refine and deploy a prototype Virtual Research Environment (VRE) to enable teams of material scientists, academic and industrial engineers and instrument scientists to work together in undertaking, compiling, analysing, interrogating and visualising multiple experiments on components of high complexity at different sites.

Aims and Objectives

The overall aim of the project is to develop and refine the experimental steering process, shared workspace and distributed visualisation into a VRE making them deployable by dispersed teams of instrument scientists, material scientists and engineers in a transparent and robust manner.

The specific objectives are to:

Set up a medium for collaboratively managing and analysing data and to make available archival data collected elsewhere for immediate side-by-side comparisons
To achieve multi-site experiment steering, to discuss progress, modify strategies, and to train and instruct students
Improve the HCI issues within the shared-workspace between the dispersed sites
Create guidelines for the use of remote steering and collaborative environments.

Project Methodology

This project is to improve the conventional way of problem solving between multi-site experiments and focusing on how to facilitate the training and discussion activities between experimenters and supervisors. While this is a VRE project, the focus is very much on the end-user engineering community. It is led by an end-user and we will focus on lightweight unobtrusive structures which hopefully will facilitate a new way of integrated multi-site working in this community. Lessons learnt from applying these VRE tools to this specific focused group will have benefits for the wider science base undertaking experiments at International User Facilities. It involves materials engineers, instrument scientists, IT, e-Science and visualisation experts.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

We will deliver a prototype grid-enabled VRE allowing experimental steering of experiments at distant facilities by dispersed University teams. This will enable us to trial interaction mechanisms and will reveal how new e-Science tools impact on distributed teams conducting world class Materials Science research. Results will be disseminated to the e-Science community looking at HCI issues relating to the shared workspace and to the Material Science community regarding remote multi-site experiment steering. It will involve extensive and on-going evaluation and feedback. If our trials prove successful the facility will be made available to all UK engineering users at ISIS, Daresbury, ILL and ESRF. Long term, lessons from this experience on the engineering use of large scale facilities may well lead to parallel benefits for other scientific users of large scale facilities. The aim will be to allow outside groups to participate using standard computing and conventional grid infrastructures typically available at large scale facilities and UK Universities.