eScience enabled by Cloud Computing

Vision Geoscientists and computer scientists collaborating to analyse and create multi-dimensional databases of subsurface layers that will enable unparalleled exploration using data mining and modeling through interactive field discovery.

A new lab has formed at the University of Adelaide, a Group of Eight university (www.adelaide.edu.au) Our research agenda, and extensive network of research collaborators, is grounded in the outcomes of "Cloud Computing at Peta-scale" a Working Group of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, www.atse.org.au whose report is to be launched in Canberra on October 14.

Modest pre-seed funding is from Primary Industries of South Australia (PIRSA), a state agency funded by royalties from mining (gold, uranium, natural gas, copper, …) www.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals

Other geoscience collaborators are

1. the magneto telluric research group led by Prof Graham Heinson, Head of Geology and Geophysics, and
2. the new $100 million Cooperative Research Centre Deep Exploration Technology, headquartered at the University of Adelaide, with research partners CSIRO and Curtin University, and major industry partners such as BHP Billiton, Newcrest; and Vale Exploration.

Latest funding news is a Jim Gray Seed Grant from Microsoft Research, which engages us with cloud computing futures in the eXtreme computing group in Redmond and http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/labs/siliconvalley/

The new Collaborative Cloud Computing Lab, is initially focusing on the application of cloud computing to minerals and energy exploration, since South Australia is world class in this industry.

A recent slide presentation on the collaboration between geophysicists and computer scientists involving cloud computing and science workflow is here