Collaborative and distributed e-Research environment for supporting scientific research and the education process

The efficient use of a scientific application service built on a computing environment requires technology that integrates each application service into a workflow so that the workflow is executed in a cooperative environment. There have been a number of attempts to automate research activities as a scientific workflow. However, there are practical problems in the full automation of research activities for a number of simulation programs and researchers. In the cyber environment for Collaborative and Distributed E-Research (CDER), the types of workflows need to be studied and supported separately and with different methodologies. In this chapter, the authors analyze the scientific research and education processes and categorize them into four types: simulation, experiment, collaborative work, and educational activity. They then describe the applications needed for each category. To justify their categorization of the CDER workflow, they examine the workflow of e-AIRS (e-Science Aerospace Integrated Research System), a problem-solving environment for aerospace research.