GridLabs: Facilitating collaborative access to remote laboratories

Abstract

eScience is usually characterized by the cooperation of distributed groups of researchers who share data and computing environments and perform experiments together. Often immense data sets that were produced by expensive equipments need to be accessed and evaluated. Such eScience scenarios require both, support for collaboration of researchers at distant locations and also the remote control of the shared laboratory devices. However, this type of remote experimentation and collaboration must be taught during university education. In this paper, we propose a framework that supports the training of above practices through the provision of a dedicated collaboration environment. It extends current approaches with support for a life cycle of remote labs, including scheduling the access to remote labs as well as defining access permissions. Our experiences in teaching lab courses suggest that the approach is also applicable in eScience scenarios