The way forward

We had an outing to Table Mountain, the Two Oceans aquarium, and ended up for lunch at Lelapa Restaurant.

Now the workshop has come to an end. It was in some ways supposed to be a prototype workshop, or a showcase, and it has succeeded far beyond that. There are two main streams of participants interested in BOINC technology. First, those who study computer science and grids and may wish to contribute to BOINC or run it for scientists in their institutions, or to use it as a topic to teach various open source technologies and distributed computing. Secondly, the scientists who have models that may benefit from being ported to BOINC, or BOINC-ified. At this workshop the focus was on disease modelling, but any model or problem which lends itself to parallel computation could benefit. In fact, due to the immense resources available, some scientists may wish to hammer their model into such a shape --- the investment may turn out to be worth it. On the other hand, running a model on BOINC includes a large amount of administration too. It remains to be seen which of the many proposals put forward by the participants will (or should) come to fruition and benefit from BOINC.

Kudos to Ben and Francois who have been building the Africa@Home community for years, and I think have taken a major step forward in this workshop.

Thanks

I am really happy to be here. I enjoyed every day of this workshop even the hard labs days, the lectures was so interesting I learnt so much, thank you to all of you, it was a nice school.
Un coucou particulier a Viola, vous nous manquez par ici, merci pour l'agreable sortie.

Workshop's last day

It has been a very busy week learning BOINC and Volunteer Computing. Yet, we really enjoyed it! Today's program was especially exciting from a science perspective. We received a faculty member from SACEMA as a guest speaker. He made a presentation on researches being done there on epidemiological modelling. What made the program even more exciting was probably the participants presentations on how they planned to use the skills gained at the workshop in their country. There were prizes for the 10 best project/activity proposals. And guess what? Well , we had a live discussion with David Anderson right from Berkeley , California, with participants asking questions and guetting answers directly from he that created BOINC! And of course, we reeally loved the Africa@home T-Shirts handed to every participants.
Tomorrow we're taking a tour in downtown Cape Town and to the table mountain. Some say Cape town is the most beautiful African city, so let's see tomorrow.

Tutors ...

Hier jeudi c'etait le dernier jour de laboratoire et evidemment le plus dur, tout le monde a tenter et retenter de faire les exercices mais sans l'aide des tuteurs c'etait mission impossible, heureusement qu'ils etaient la.
Parlons un peu des tuteurs, par ordre alphabetique pour que personne ne se fache, ils sont tous tellement sympas et patients face a nos questions et interrogations. Donc tout d'abord Chris, il ne parle pas beaucoup mais il est vraiment present et son aide et efficace , quand j'etais demoralisee l'autre jour car je n'ai pas reussi a terminer les exos il m'a dit pour me remonter le moral que lui non plus n'avait pas tt terminer a ce moment c'etait bon a savoir. Passons a Christian, c'est le scandinave par excellence, pleines de bonnes manieres mais cote travail ca ne plaisante pas on devait vraiment faire tout par nous meme surout reflechir, quelques recommaandations(tres utiles) et puis on doit se debrouiller, ceci dit c'est une maniere efficace pour apprendre. Ensuite Daniel, je le connaissais avant on a ete a la meme Cern School of Computing a Helsinki http://csc.web.cern.ch/CSC/Default-old.asp, il est trop sympa et toujours souriant, il fait de magnifiquesphotos (visiter son blog) http://flickr.com/photos/teleyinex et surout il est engage ds les open sources, cote travail tres efficace et helpful. Ensuite vient Jan (joyeux anniversaire encore une fois , c'etait aujourd'hui) Jan veut me convertir a Ubuntu , on va voir d'ici a mardi le jour de mon depart, il est sympa et convaincant, il a pris de jolie photos au CapePoint http://users.aims.ac.za/~jan/photos/200707boinc/01capepoint/
Passons maintenant a Joris, ce grand gars avec les cheuveux tres long, il parait jeune mais ses connaissances sont impressionnantes, il est tres patient et toujours pret a nous aider et tout reexpliquer.
Maintenant Nicolas, c'est un reelle plaisir de le connaitre, il est tres calme et il m'inspire la serenite et je ne suis pas la seule a l'avoir remarquer, il dit qu'il n'y a pas de question stupide, il ramene toujours son fauteuil pour prendre tout son temps et tout nous expliquer, et ce qu'il fait comme travail est vraiment interessant.
Bien sur je ne quitterai pas ce post sans avoir parler de Ben et de Francois, alors...Ben que puis-je dire sur lui qui n'a pas encore etait dit, une grande presence, une grande culture, une personne a connaitre, tres dynamique et un excellant chef d'orchestre. Et maintenant Francois, j'ai adore ses presentations, un tres bon orateur et tres sympa aussi il vous mets tout de suite tres a l'aise, ravie d'avoir fais sa connaissance.
Je pense qu'en tres grande partie la reussite de cette ecole on la doit aux tuteurs: serieux , presents , tres competent et surtout sympas. Merci a vous tous j'etais contente de faire votre
connaissance.

Friday July 2007

Workshop Organizers and Volunteers
The workshop organizers and volunteers gave us a lot of their time and energy. The planning was very good and nothing was left to chance. The good thing was that every time a gap was detected in the background of the participants somebody rose to the challenge and prepared a presentation to increase the knowledge base of students. My thanks to Ben, Francoise, Jan, Nick, Daniel, Joris, Christian, Chris and Andy.

Monday 16th July 2007

Day one of the workshop
Meal times at AIMS represent a whole new dimension.
Breakfast at starts at 7:45 in the morning and it is a very good time to get to know people because early in the morning most people are very relaxed. One of the first people I got to know was Pervash whose is an Iranian resident in South Africa and working in Durban, she is one of the academicians who attended the workshop.

There workshop started with an overview of distributed and volunteer computing presented by Ben Segal and François Grey followed by a presentation of a climate modelling application to be which is to be ported to IBM World Community Grid. This morning session answered the question about the type of applications which would be suitable for Volunteer Computing.

The afternoon session was about the volunteer computing environment and credit system. Then we started the real hands on approach by creating a BOINC client attaching to a server and competing for credit!!!! This was a taste of the real BOINC experience.

AIMS A Participant Perspective

Jan talked about the history and what AIMS has achieved in the past few years. I want to write about the human side in AIMS. Walking into AIMS there is a feeling of warmth and comfort, it is a place in which everybody feels welcome irrespective of where they come from. I would like to take pay tribute to Igsaan whom we seldom see but who is responsible for the smooth running of the guest house. I would also like to mention the kitchen staff who are always smiling while performing their duties. May AIMS always be a home away from home to all scientists.

africa@home another day

Les jours se suivent mais ne se ressemblent pas.....aujourd hui nous avons etudier comment porter un projet a Boinc, cote difficulte c est toujours la meme chose, tout le monde etait un peu perdu a partir du second exercice, il parait que c est normal et qu on ne peut pas facilemt assimiler autant de chose en si peu de temps . ceci dit c est un excellant defi d aller jusqu au bout des exercices tout en apprenant plein de choses sur le chemin.

Il fait beau, nous somme gates j espere que ca sera encore le cas Samedi pour la sortie, j ai hate de voir la Mountain Table de plus pres.
Hier j ai pris le temps apres le dejeuner de faire un tour, l ocean est tellement beau et immense, c est toujours un plaisir d etre en face d un tel espace. Je viens d une ville interieure, donc pour moi la mer et la l ocean c est toujours beau a voir et revoir.

africa@home impressions......

I will blog in French and English. So black part will be french and the pink one in english...
Trip to Aims: J 'étais très contente a l'idee de venir en Afrique du Sud et de participer au Africa@home workshop. Jour de départ jeudi 12 juillet, le voyage s 'annoncer long :8 heures pour atteindre Doha mais c'était agréable avec Qatar Airways, puis j'ai dû passer la nuit à Doha, ce fut une très courte nuit, uniquement 3 heure de sommeil puisque mon vol pour CapeTown était à 8h du matin. Un long vol de plus de 12 heures où j ai pu admirer de beaux paysages de mon cher continent. Arrivée à CapeTown, il faisait déjà nuit et un peu frais puisque c'est l'hiver par la.
On est venu me recuperer à l'aéroport comme prévu. Un premier contact avec l'Afrique du Sud, avec CapeTown : ça semble être paisible.
Une fois arrivée à Aims une longue nuit m'attendait, beaucoup de sommeil à récuperer.
Samedi matin je me suis rendue compte que c'était vraiment l'hiver et que je n'avais pas les vêtements qu'il fallait, du shopping à l'horizon j'adore ça mais comment faire? heureusement que Viola était là, on est allé à CapeTown, un bel endroit Water Front, si vous venez à CapeTown faites y un tour, vous allez sans doute aimer. La sortie avec Viola était agréable, je suis contente d'avoir fait sa connaissance.
Dimanche on voulais tous aller voir les pinguins d'Afrique et surout le Cape de Bonne Esperance et le Cape Point (l'endroit ou se rencontrent les deux océans l'Atlantique et l'Indien), là je n'exagère pas en disant que c'était vraiment magnifique, j'avais l'impression d'être sur une carte et d'avancer vers le bas, le bout de l'Afrique.
Dimanche soir, les choses serieuses s'annonçaient à l'horizon mais on a juste eu une séance de prise de contact et puis on a installé les serveurs.
Lundi matin, là c'était du serieux, les cours commençaient à 9 h, durant la matinée c'était la partie théorique et aprés l'heure du dejeuner on passer au labo. Au debut ça semblait un peu difficile mais aprés les choses devenaient de plus en plus claires et simples (surtout comparé aux jours suivants dont je parlerai plus tard), queqlues recherches à faire, des datas à analysées et puis un peu de reflexion, on devait accumulée le plus de crédit possible en nous connectant au Boinc et on faisant marcher l'un des projets. Pour ce dernier point le prix à gagner était du chocolat...suisse svp, bon je n'ai pas eu le plus de crédit donc aucun prix pour le 1er exo, rien non plus pour le 2nd ni pour le 3eme ni pour le 4eme d'ailleurs mais comme je suis une personne perseverante je suis allé jusqu'au dernier exo avec l'aide Nicholas et voila, j'étais la seule à l'avoir fait et j'ai eu ma tablette de Chocolat.
Mardi, la ça a commencé à se corser: durant la matinée la partie theorique était très riche en informations et evidemment difficile à suivre mais une fois au lab et aprés plusieurs tentatives avec le 1er exo le but était atteint mais on était pas les premiers à l'avoir fait ....donc pas de prix. Je dis "on" puisqu'on travaille en équipes de trois personne chacune.
Ce que j'ai noté c'est que les difficulté que nous avons ne sont pas forcement reliées avec le niveau des exos mais plutôt avec tout ce que nous devrions connaitre sur les commandes de linux et les trucs à verifier ou à localiser, c'est ce qui prends le plus de temps à mon avis puisque souvent en appelant à l'aide les tuteurs résolvent le probleme en une ou deux commandes. Bon parfois c'est plus compliqué que ça. Ce fut le cas aujourd'hui, c'était relativement specialisé et compliqué, au dinner ce fut rassurant de constater que la plupart des participants avaient les meme soucis que moi, à savoir pleines de choses à retenir, une grande confusion concernat les noms de projets, de fichiers, les mots de passe qu'on a eu à mettre hier. Mais là ça va beaucoup mieux, avec l'aide de Nicolas on a pu allé jusqu'au bout du dernier exercice....enfin.
C'est très agréable d'être là bien que ça soit un peu difficile de tout suivre et de tout retenir, je suis contente d'avoir fait la connaissance de Ben Segal dont tout le monde dit beaucoup de bien, on a eu une discussion très enrichissante Dimanche sur la route pour le Cape de Bonne esperance.

Is volunteer computing a good idea for Africa?

Just to put this workshop in perspective: as far as we know, this is the first time anyone has tried to run a one-week workshop on volunteer computing - anywhere, let alone in Africa. The teachers are focussing on practical hands-on experience, rather than theoretical knowledge.

And they're setting the bar very high. Today is day three, and the participants are already working on getting a real science project, malaria control.net, to run on a BOINC server (the map shows computers around the world contributing to malariacontrol.net). In the past, it has taken some of the scientists teaching the course weeks or months to get this far. The participants installed the BOINC server themselves yesterday, and played around with BOINC clients on the first day.

So why do this, anyway? Can volunteer computing really help Africa? Wouldn't it be more relevant to spend time, money and effort on the 'one computer for every child' initiative? Or on getting more - and cheaper - bandwidth to Africa?

Maybe. But volunteer computing could help African scientists leapfrog the challenge of building big computing centres, and plug directly into the massive resources of all the PCs out there on the Internet. It could give African scientists a lot of visibility in the international science community. Homegrown volunteer computing projects could be a source of pride and provide a role model for young Africans. A bit like getting your national football team in the World Cup.

So is volunteer computing for Africa a pragmatic solution, or an idealistic daydream? You tell me!

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

AIMS is a relatively young institute with significant achievements and an ambitious plan for the future.

AIMS was founded by cosmologist Neil Turok, son of South African MP Ben Turok, who lives in Muizenberg where the institute is now situated. Under the guidance of director Fritz Hahne the institute attracts bright students from Africa and lecturers internationally.

Already the 150 or so alumni trained over the last four years have rapidly built an excellent reputation for AIMS. They are forming a pan-African community of scientists, along with the researchers and system administrators who visit AIMS for short courses and workshops. The converted hotel now consists of safe accommodation, computer facilities bundled with Free Software for science, lecture rooms, and blackboards everywhere. Visitors work late into each night to make the utmost of their time in the institute.

There is an overwhelming call for places at AIMS, either as students or lecturers, but a massive increase in numbers would destroy the intensive, interactive academic spirit that is fostered here. Rather AIMS will expand into related research groups and projects, but the institute itself will also form the model for 15 similar regional institutes across the continent, in a collaborative effort called AMI-Net.

This network could train the next generation of scientists for all the NEPAD Science and Technology programmes, and create the innovative advisors to policy makers on the continent, that will ultimately realise the African Renaissance.

Workshop Sunday July 15th

We finally arrived at AIMS and found everybody in an introductory meeting, I was in a haze so I just registered a few faces and affiliations. The most interesting thing was a lady from Nigeria said she was doing her Ph.D. in modelling Internet traffic, that was my Ph.D. topic so all my antennas started working overtime. I was also very happy to meet Jan the organizer from AIMS, I had met him a few months earlier when he had come to visit Sudan with an AIMS delegation.

I was also very pleased to see Ben Segal whom I had read about, it was really nice meeting somebody from the early Internet days.

After the meeting we installed an Ubuntu server

Workshop activity Day 0

First thing we did upon arrival, was an introductory meeting in which we got to know a little bit about each other. Then we installed a Linux -Apache-Mysql-PhP/Python/Perl server under Ubuntu Dapper (very straightforward).

From Bangui to AIMS

It wasn't easy , but fortunately I made it! I first had to get a visa in Yaounde, so I left my hometown Bangui and arrived in Younde via Doula on Tuesday July 10. The next day I submitted my application at the South African Embassy. I am so glad that it worked out. And the, Saturday July 14th was the departure day. We left Yaounde like around 22 pm to Nairobi via Douala by Kenya Airways, then from Nairobi Kenya Airways took us to Johannesburg. Finaly, we flew NationWide to get to Cape Town. Waw, I couldn't believe my eyes!

Trip to AIMS

It was a long trip: Algiers - Doha (8hours) I spent one night in Doha then Doha - Cape Town (12 hours), but it was very nice.......more details later

Getting To AIMS from Khartoum Sudan

Our trip to Cape town was almost 14 hours. We started off from Khartoum at 04:15 am after a delay of more than half an hour. Our next stop was Nairobi Kenya, where we had to walk for about 200 meters from the plane to the airport building, we then had to get to gate number 14, the last one in building. We had no time to enjoy Nairobi airport because we had to hurry to the gate. We stayed in Kenya for about an hour and a half. We arrived at Johannesburg at about 12:15 and immediately proceeded to the domestic flights airport without collecting our luggage because the Kenya Airways employee in Khartoum told us that we could collect our luggage in Cape Town. After collecting our boarding passes to Cape Town we were asked for our luggage, we had to go back to the International Airport. When we came back our flight had left, but luckily there was a flight in an hour which we caught.
My first impression of Cape Town was that it was a green city with not very many people because driving to AIMS we did not meet a lot of people or cars. I think it is a city which grows on you, the more you drive into Cape Town the more captivating it becomes.

My trip to reach AIMS!

Our trip from Yaounde to Cape town required more than 11 hours and 10mn fly. We started off from Yaounde at 21:20, and I took the precaution to take in hand all my luggage. The first stop was Douala ( about 40mn from Yaounde) and the next was Nairobi - Kenya were we had to wait for 03 hours the next fly. We left Nairobi at 07:40 from Johannesburg, and arrived in Cape Town at 15:20. A car take us to AIMS. I was very happy to see again Viola, Ben, François, and Christian, and news faces. I'm finily came late at the first introductory meeting because I forget to set my watch from GMT+1 (Cameroon) to GMT+2 (Cape Town).