Analysis and outcomes of the Grid-enabled engineering body scanner

This paper presents initial analysis and outcomes from the Integrated & Steering of Multi-Site Experiments for the Engineering Body Scanner (ISME) Virtual Research Environment (VRE) project to enable geographically remote teams of material scientists to work together. Comparisons between different AccessGrid (AG) tools have been made, allowing us to identify their advantages and disadvantages regarding quality (visual and audio) over broadband networks, utility, ease of use, reliability, cost and support. These comparisons are particularly important when considering our intended use of AG in nontraditional, non-office based settings, including using slow domestic broadband networks to run AG sessions from home to support experiments at unsociable hours. Our detailed analysis has informed the development of a suite of services on the web portal. Besides user interactions, a suite of services based on JSR-168 had been developed for evaluation. Each service has been evaluated by materials scientist users, thereby allowing qualitative user requirement gathering. This feedback has resulted in a prioritised implementation list for these services within the prototype web portal allowing the project to develop useful features for material scientists and the wider VRE community.