UK eScience Booth at SC04

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UK e-Science Booth at SC04

• John Gordon
• 30th November 2004

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SC

• SuperComputing started in 1988
• In recent years more emphasis on Distributed
  Computing and Technology than pure Supercomputing
• The name is now SC2004 rather than SuperComputing
• The High Performance, Networking, and Storage
  Conference
• UK e-Science programme has had a booth since 2002
• SC2004 was held in Pittsburgh, 6-10 November

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SC2004

• Booth
• Programme
• Feedback
• Next year?

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The Booth

• CCLRC-RAL took responsibility for the
  infrastructure
• A UK company, SmartPartners, arranged the
  shipping and construction of the stand.
• RAL managed the networking, computers, display,
  and audio-visual
• Mainly funded by EPSRC
• Some equipment loaned by RAL and others (eg
  ClusterVision)

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(No Transcript)
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The Programme

• Dave Berry (NeSC) organised the booth content
• 12 demonstrations with 1 or 2 flat screens
• Talks in the booths theatre

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Demonstrations

• Public call went out early summer
• Aimed at e-Science Centres and RCs
• Calling for projects to propose demonstrations
• Review panel looked at the projects presence at
  AHM and proposed a couple more
• Selection made early September
• Funded two people per demo

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Demonstrations
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Talks

• A programme of 25 talks was organised for the
  booth
• Speakers drawn from demonstrators, other
  attendees, and via Access Grid from the UK.
• All broadcast on AG

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Talks
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Pictures
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Visitors

• Visitors to the booth had their name badges
  swiped to record their details
• 902 recorded
• Although the card reader was broken for a while.
• Estimate 1000
• cf 353 at Phoenix 2003

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Other Observations

• Many other countries with booths
• Countries Netherlands, Hungary, Austria
• Organisations France, Japan, Taiwan, Germany,
  Spain, Brazil, Australia
• UK Daresbury, EPCC, Manchester
• eIRG recommended that FP6 Grid Programmes be
  represented in 2005

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Feedback

• The overall feeling was that the stand was a
  success and that attending had been beneficial.
• The demonstrators had all made good contacts and
  were grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate
  their work.
• They also appreciated the chance to learn what is
  being done elsewhere by visiting the other stands
  at the show.
• Most people said they would like to attend again

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Suggestions

• Identifiable Logo/Banner
• Union Flag?
• Open up demo area
• Poster areas hide the demos
• Bigger displays
• Plasma screen will reduce poster space
• More visual talks
• More guides to lead visitors to demos
• Stricter management of demos

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Next Year

• This years grant covers storage of the booth
• Could be used elsewhere
• Booked 40x40 booth for Seattle 12-18 Nov
• No cost yet
• Shared boundary with AIST
• SC Global
• Collaborative working over AG
• StorCloud
• Space to demo high-bandwidth