Parametric
computational experiments are becoming increasingly important
in science and engineering as a means of exploring the behavior
of complex systems. For example, an engineer may explore the
behaviour of a wing by running a computational model of the airfoil
multiple times while varying key parameters such as angle of
attack, air speed, etc. The results of these multiple experiments
yield a picture of how the wing behaves in different parts of
parametric space.
Over the past several
years, we have developed a specialized parametric modeling system
called Nimrod. Nimrod uses a simple declarative parametric modeling
language to express a parametric experiment and provides machinery
that automates the task of formulating, running, monitoring,
and collating the results from the multiple individual experiments.
Equally important, Nimrod incorporates a distributed scheduling
component that can manage the scheduling of individual experiments
to idle computers in a local area network. Together, these features
mean that even complex parametric experiments can be defined
and run with little programmer effort. In many cases it is possible
to establish a new experiment in minutes. Nimrod has been applied
to a range of application areas, including Bioinformatics, Operations
Research, Network Simulation, Electronic CAD, Ecological Modelling
and Business Process Simulation.
Nimrod comes in a number
of flavours. EnFuzion is
a commercial quality solution and is available for Clusters. Nimrod/G is
a research prototype and operates on a computational grid. Nimrod/O has
been designed for performing automatic design optimisation. Active
Sheets provides a spread sheet interface for Nimrod/G, EnFuzion
and NetSolve, allowing
spread sheets to perform parallel computations on the grid. Finally,
the Nimrod Portal allows a user to specify
and control a computational experiment from a browser. A testbed
called the Australan Nimrod Testbed is
being built to support routine parametric computational experiments.
Monash University, and
the Nimrod project, is proud to be an Academic Affiliate of the Globus
Alliance.
Breaking News .... Nimrod/G
v2.0 Released By Nimrod Project
UC-SAN
DIEGO UNDERGRADS GO ABROAD TO STUDY CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE
Nimrod
Goes International
UCSD
UNDERGRADUATES SHOWCASE RESEARCH FINDINGS FROM CYBER INFRASTRUCTURE
PROJECTS IN ASIA, AUSTRALIA
Calit2
Helps UCSD Undergraduates Do Research on Cyberinfrastructure
Applications in Asia, Australia
US
students get a feel for IT research at Monash
Nimrod
Project Releases Nimrod/Gv.3.0
Monash
software takes flight in cancer, aircraft research 
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