Particle Physicists Engagement with Grids: A Socio-technical Usability Study

Experimental particle physics has always demanded new technology and this demand has led to many new innovations, of which the Web is perhaps most notable. Currently particle physics is demanding a new form of computer system capable of processing the vast quantity of data which will be produced by a new particle accelerator at CERN (Europe's particle physics laboratory based in Geneva called the Large Hadron Collider - LHC), scheduled to start in 2007. This experiment will produce a staggering 12-14 million gigabytes of data per year and so requires a wholly new form of computer system to store and process the data. This new system is called LCG, LHC Computing Grid, which consists of many distributed computers, CPUs and disk servers, all over the world working together so that any user can draw on very large amounts of computing power without needing to know about how it works or even where the computers and data are located. The UK high energy physics (HEP) community has set up a collaboration called GridPP to construct a UK grid which will contribute  10,000 PCs to the 100,000 PCs needed worldwide for LCG. At the moment GridPP are about to complete their first two phases (GridPP1 and GridPP2) which undertook the initial development and deployment of the Grid, and are preparing for GridPP3, the production phase in which their Grid comes into full use. The process of developing and implementing new infrastructure is always complicated and challenging. And yet particle physics research has never “failed” because of computing despite the technical challenges it has always faced. However, a computing project of such a scale is unprecedented. While the pilot projects may prove technically successful, making sure of the usability of the infrastructure is another challenge. In particular the users will need to change the way they work in order to accommodate the new system, they will require (or even demand) the new system to be changed in unexpected ways because it doesn't fit with their needs, and furthermore the type of work they do collectively will be changed. 

This project aims to understand the way particle physicists are constructing their Grid, and how they are introducing it into use. This is relevant for improving the usability of all Grids and for wider information systems research for three reasons; first, particle physicists are very pragmatic in the way they construct technology and tend to employ tools and techniques in different ways to other developers (for example software companies or big firms). Second, particle physicists are distributed across the globe and have for a long time worked together as a "virtual organization"; something which is of great interest to other scientists as "e-science" leads them to work in similar ways. Third, because the LHC will start in 2008, and so the UK HEP grid must be ready on time, we will be able to observe the compromises and decisions particle physicists make to construct a usable system to a deadline. This means that the research can provide a relevant juxtaposition to current research on other innovative systems development approaches, for example Open Source Development and Agile Methods.

So how do we go about such research? We are conducting research on GridPP as a longitudinal case study, employing qualitative methods such as observing, listening and recording what is going on, as well as doing interviews with people in different roles. We will therefore attend the main meetings of GridPP, read their documents and interview people involved. From all this observation we will write a set of three documents: The first will describe how the needs of the new particle accelerator shape the design of the new infrastructure. The second will describe how the system is understood by, and comes to be used by, particle physicists preparing for the LHC. The third will detail how GridPP is actually used among particle physicists doing research using the data produced from the LHC. Using these three reports as a starting point we will produce a framework and a set of guidance for other areas of science that are developing and deploying similar Grids for their work as well as other fields including engineering, businesses and government.