Within the framework of the UNESCO-HP Brain Gain Initiative (BGI), an advanced training session on grid computing for all BGI partners was held from Tuesday 22 to Saturday 26 March 2011 at the Meraka Institute, on CSIR Campus Pretoria, South Africa. This workshop is the third of a series of training sessions proposed in the framework of the pilot phase of the UNESCO-HP BGI.

The workshop brought together scientists and researchers from various African and Arab universities and institutions. Two representatives per project were invited to attend:  a technical expert/support person, who will be involved in the operational support of the equipment and running the grid node, and a researcher/end user, who would benefit from training sessions on using grid computing for research, for education and for science.  From The Energy Center (TEC), KNUST, Mr. Joseph K. G. Nuamah, the technical expert/support person and Dr. Cephas Idan, the researcher/end user attended the event.

The programme started with an open day to raise awareness of the projects, and facilitate interactions, both within the group and with students, researchers and officials of CSIR. Participants made 10-minute presentation of their projects, its developments, ambitions and the partnerships they seek. Dr. Cephas Idan gave a presentation titled “Mobilizing the Ghanaian Diaspora for Renewable Energy Research and Development”. To download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation made by the Dr. Idan, please click here

The content of the training was developed to address the specific needs of technical experts and researchers. Each group followed a programme tailored to their profile. For the researcher/end user, topics covered in the training included Site Administration and Deployment, Basic User Training, Grid Portals and Application Gateways, Registration Authority assignment and Application porting and cloud computing development. For the technical expert/support person, topics covered in the training included gLite introduction, BDII Installation, CE and siteBDII installation and configuration, WN installation and configuration, DPM installation and configuration, Configuring the "site-info.def" file and Introduction to Job Submission. 

For more information on the workshop click here.