The last decade has seen a dramatic shift from single machine installations to highly specialised distributed, networked configurations. Grid computing is one of the modern computing platforms that has the potential to be a "disruptive" technology and may substantially alter the competitive landscape. There is a common belief that grid computing represents a "paradigm shift" that will provide the next big boost in corporate productivity since the inception of the Internet and World Wide Web.

Grid Computing is an emerging technology that enables large-scale resource/data sharing, and coordinated problem solving within distributed, often loosely coordinated groups, sometimes termed "virtual organisations". By providing scalable, secure, and high-performance mechanisms for discovering and negotiating access to remote resources, Grid technologies promise to make it possible for scientific collaborations to share resources on an unprecedented scale, and for geographically distributed groups to work together in ways that were previously impossible. Similar technologies are being adopted within industry, where they serve as important building blocks for emerging service provider infrastructures. Grid computing is an approach to distributed computing that spans not only locations but also organisations, machine architectures and software boundaries to provide unlimited power, collaboration and information access to everyone connected to a Grid.

Even though the advantages of Grid technology for classes of applications has been acknowledged, research into a variety of disciplines is needed to broaden the applicability and scope of the current body of knowledge. This would include not only multiple domains of computer science (networking, middleware, programming, algorithms) but also application disciplines themselves, such as areas like sociology and economics.

Program Coordinator:

Dr. Bing Bing Zhou from the University of Sydney, is working on Grid computing, parallel and distributed computing, and Bioinformatics.