The first Latin American Grid Workshop is being held this week in Merida, Venezuela. The workshop is hosted by the Centro Nacional de Calculo Cientifico de la Universidad de Los Andes (CeCalCULA), one of the leading centers in South America. The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) has collaborated with CeCalCULA, the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, the International Center of Theoretical Physics, and the Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium to hold this event. "This workshop will enable Latin America to join other regions at the forefront of Grid computing," said Luis Nunez, director of CeCalCULA. "It is crucial for our future R&D efforts, and we thank these other institutions for partnering with us to hold this landmark workshop."

Two TACC staff will be speaking along with other distinguished colleagues from the United States, Italy, France, Switzerland and Venezuela. Jay Boisseau, TACC director, will provide a three-hour comprehensive introduction to the principles, benefits, and practicalities of Grid computing. Maytal Dahan, TACC project manager for UT Grid, will provide a lecture and conduct a lab session on using TACC's GridPort software to build Grid-enabled Web portals. "This is an exciting event because the students will actually use Grid technologies and bring up functional Grid portals, which they will then be able to do at their universities across Latin America," said Dahan. Other presenters will speak on complementary topics from European Grid projects.

Grid technologies are just beginning to be implemented in Latin America, including at CeCalCULA. This workshop will train Latin American computer scientists and developers to evaluate Grid software and requirements, to develop and deploy Grid technologies, and to port applications to Grids. Over 50 participants from eight Latin American countries are in attendance.

Participating in this event is part of TACC's new international collaboration and outreach activities. "TACC is excited about developing new opportunities for impact by working with the international community, and we are honored to be teaching at this important Latin American workshop," said Boisseau.

For more information on the Latin American Grid Workshop, please visit the Web site www.cecalc.ula.ve/lag2004/i_index.html.