ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan, which played a significant role in the development of the Internet, is plunging into the next wave of the information revolution: grid computing. A new project, Michigan Grid Research and Infrastructure Development (MGRID), will create a campus-wide institutional grid and set the stage for the University to tie into a national grid for sharing computers, data, scientific instruments, museum and library collections, and other resources and services, while enabling collaboration with distant colleagues. “While several other major universities and laboratories are involved in grid computing at the national level, U-M is one of the first to explore the potential of grid computing to enhance research and instructional activities across an institution,” said William R. Martin, MGRID’s interim director. The University has solicited suggestions from faculty and staff for projects and resources that lend themselves to being shared throughout the University and beyond. “Grids represent the third wave of computing,” said Martin, a professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences who is also director of the Center for Advanced Computing. The Internet was the first wave, the browser and World Wide Web the second, he said. “The third wave—the grid—allows users to collaborate and share not just information but high-performance computing facilities, laboratory equipment, large data archives, remote sensing instruments, digital libraries, and other resources and services.” Just as an electrical grid allows users to plug in a variety of appliances, a computing grid is designed to accommodate a range of resources and applications. The vision of grid computing is for vast amounts of computing power—as well as the resources and services that are plugged into the system—to be available on demand and to flow as easily as electricity. A key feature is the ability to tap unused processing cycles of computers on the grid to solve problems that are too complex or too demanding for a single computer to handle. The initial goal of MGRID is to create a computing grid for the University that will speed research and enhance campus-wide collaboration. For example, a technologist at a U-M imaging laboratory could make a high resolution, 3-D microscopic image of a regenerating bone specimen from the School of Dentistry. The data could be sent to the Center for Advanced Computing, where the image would be processed, analyzed and fused into a 3-D computer model to simulate bone regeneration and repair. This model could then be shared over the grid with researchers in the Applied Physics Program who have been modeling the stresses involved during bone growth. When the MGRID is connected with emerging national and international grids, such as TeraGrid, an $88 million grid computing initiative funded by the National Science Foundation, said Martin, “the U-M community will enjoy unprecedented access to resources and services throughout the United States and the world, supporting cutting-edge research and instructional activities in collaboration with colleagues around the globe.”

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