Five DOSAR institutions' contributions to simulations for the DZero experiment during the past year. Image Courtesy Joel Snow

For three years, the Distributed Organization for Scientific and Academic Research has been helping high-energy physicists with modest computing resources make big contributions to their collaborations using the grid. DOSAR brings researchers together to share information and experiences, with the goal of accelerating the adoption of new technologies by all members.

Initially called D0SAR, for the DZero Southern Analysis Region, the group comprised high-energy research groups from six universities in the southern United States and the Tata Institute in India. The organization banded together to simulate particle physics events for the DZero experiment at Fermilab in Illinois.

"We started with the concept of putting together a regional grid for DZero," says founding member Jae Yu from the University of Texas at Arlington. "At some point DOSAR institutions were producing half of the simulated events for the experiment." This represented quite an accomplishment for the smaller DOSAR institutions, as the DZero experiment today includes more than 80 institutions.

"My institution is very small; I'm the only high-energy physicist," says Joel Snow from Langston University in Oklahoma. "Yet at one point, Langston was the fifth highest producer of simulated events, proving that a small institution using grid technologies and collaborating closely with other institutions can make a significant impact."

The change in the organization's name has mirrored a change in outlook. Where the initial focus was only on using the grid for one experiment, members are now exploring the use of grid technologies for other particle physics experiments, specifically the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. The DOSAR institutions have also created a virtual organization within the Open Science Grid, through which they hope to contribute to research in fundamental grid technologies and to introduce other research groups within their universities to grid computing.

"At Louisiana Tech, we're collaborating with members of our computer-science group on high-availability computing," says DOSAR member Dick Greenwood. "We're hoping to work with OSG members on fault-tolerance in the OSG software."

The DOSAR group, which now includes additional institutions in the United States and South America, meets every two weeks over the phone and every six months in person to discuss mutual grid computing needs and activities.

"DOSAR is no longer just for high-energy physics," adds Yu. "We're working to get the conceptual grid to actual lives. DOSAR members are playing leading roles in getting grids to reach each of their states, and we want to bring other scientists and educators onto the grid along with us."

DOSAR includes members from Kansas State University; Langston University; Louisiana State University; Louisiana Tech University; the University of Kansas; the University of Mississippi; the University of Oklahoma; the University of Texas at Arlington; Cinvestav, Mexico; the Tata Institute, India; and Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil.

For more information visit the DOSAR Web site.