Application for a PIPSS Fellowship at the Cambridge Centre for Scientific Computing

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Scientists working in particle physics and astronomy make use of very large numbers of computers linked together in 'grids' to process data from accelerators and telescopes. For example, up to 100,000 computers will be working together to analyse data from the Large Hadron Collider when it begins operating in 2008. Astronomers have created a 'virtual observatory' by combining images from many telescopes into combined images of the sky. These efforts require large amounts of computing power, and the ability to handle data from all over the world. The expertise which is used in these projects can be applied to many other problems. For example, Cambridge University has worked with an internet startup company to analyse the content of millions of images stored on the internet, in order to develop a commercial service to search for particular images. The computing power was supplied by the particle physics grid (GridPP) funded by the STFC. We have also worked with Microsoft to expand the capacity of our research grids, in partnership with their expert software developers. In this project, we have been able to run particle physics analysis on Windows machines, rather than the linux operating system usually used. We wish to expand our activities in these areas of knowledge transfer, both to and from industry, in order to improve our ability to do science, and to help industry and hence the UK economy. In order to do so, we will employ a PIPPS Fellow to develop new relationships with industry, and bring together new knowledge transfer projects.