by John Towns, Director of Persistent Infrasctucture Directorate at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), University of Illinois
After more than a year of planning and preparations we are finally nearing the TeraGrid ‘09 event! As chair, I am amazed by the amount of effort and enthusiasm that has gone into the development of the program and activities of the conference and need to express my gratitude and appreciation to the team that has really made it all happen, the TeraGrid Planning Committee.
I am very excited about the program we have created:
- an interesting range of tutorials on Monday to open the week;
- a set of excellent keynotes from Paul Avery, Ed Seidel, and Tom Cheatham on current issues in cyberinfrastructure and its future;
- an incredible collection of presentations in the Science, Technology and EOT tracks.
The core elements are complimented by an array of exciting activities including the Visualization Showcase showing off some of the best science, the Posters Session with some of the most interesting new work, and an array of topical Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. These are punctuated by a very nice mix of special sessions, including the Global Grid Perspectives, and Agency Roundtable on CI futures and the TeraGrid to XD Transition.
Of special note this year is the absolutely extraordinary student program that has been developed. A big objective of mine as the general chair was to expand this significantly. The National Science Foundation has been graciously supportive in this and we will have grown the program from having 10-15 students in the past to more than 100 student this year! An astonishing accomplishment! I hope you will take note of their presence and encourage their ongoing engagement in the cyberinfrastructure community.
I am eagerly awaiting the event and very much look forward to seeing all of you there!