Distributed computing systems research and applications with focus on resource sharing

Abstract

I take this opportunity to pass my greetings and to welcome all the participants to the University of Nairobi and to this workshop that has been organized within the College of Biological and Physical Sciences. My special welcome extends to the participants from the other institutions from outside the University of Nairobi. I take note that this workshop is one of a kind in so far as it addresses the opportunities offered by distributed computing for development, scientific research and education in this region. It fits well into the College research and training agenda. The College's mission is to provide quality education and training in science, technology and innovation through the creation, dissemination and utilization of knowledge for the benefit of the welfare of humanity. It also fits well into the National agenda, in particular:- The Kenya Vision 2030 national development plan that emphasizes science, technology and innovation as important drivers. Distributed and High performance computing will remain relevant given that the technology supports scientific research by availing infrastructure for collaboration and information sharing as well as high performance computation requirements. The development of human resource in this area is important. This more so since there is currently, lack of people with the necessary expertise. We may therefore, consider this UNESCO-HP Brain Gain project as a vision 2030 flagship project since it is closely aligned to the national development agenda. There are notable areas in which the relevance and the benefits of such distributed systems initiatives stand out and these include:The Multidisciplinary nature of the initiative making it fit well into the real life problem situations. The leveraging of resources and knowledge from different fields have been encouraged. The Collaborative nature manifest in the Inter and Intra institutions that has enabled the sharing of knowledge and leverages the limited human resource in the country to serve the various objectives in training and research. The Tapping of the expertise in the Diaspora that has given rise to the brain gain instead of brain drain. I therefore welcome other institutions to join in this initiative in the distributed systems resource sharing and research towards a national and regional collaborative network. I encourage dissemination of the research findings and experiences. I offer the College’s support for this and similar initiatives. I take this opportunity to recognize the contributions of UNESCO and HP who have supported this initiative.