Applying the Grid Computing Paradigm within a Liberal Arts Academic Environment

Until very recently analyses and computations on a large scale were feasible only on supercomputers or clusters of high-end processors. Such computational infrastructure requires massive investments that can be unrealistic in a liberal arts college environment such as that found at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). However, TCNJ has several state-of-the-art campus computer labs for use by students and faculty. There are periods (e.g. nights, weekends, and summer months), when a significant number of these computers are underutilized. A grid computing environment would enable a user to harness underutilized campus resources for computationally intensive applications. In this paper we discuss some of the issues faced in the liberal arts environment, our approach for resolving them, and our initial results.