The world's first postgraduate degree in the emerging field of distributed computing and Grid technology, which enables users to access resources through a virtual network of computer applications, was recently launched at the University of Melbourne.

Director of the University's Grid Computing and Distributed Systems (GridS) Laboratory, Rajkumar Buyya, said, "This new engineering degree will provide Melbourne graduates with a unique qualification not available anywhere else in the world but sure to be of great demand in the near future as the emerging field of distributed computing and Grid technology continues to expand."

Grids are believed to be the next generation of Internet and Web applications where, rather than building a supercomputer or advanced facility of your own, the services of distributed resources are borrowed for the time that they are needed.

Individuals or businesses can access resources that would normally not be available to them by borrowing from the Grid network. In return, they can also place their resources on the Grid, making them available to other users.

"All over the world, governments and industries have recognized the potential of Grid technology and are investing in its long-term development."

Buyya and his team are world leaders in the field and their "Gridbus" project has already been involved in a range of e-Research and e-Business applications from reading brainwaves and early detection of breast cancer to searching for cosmic particles and developing finance portfolio analysis.

The new Master of Engineering in Distributed Computing (MEDC) will provide graduates with expertise in the development of these networked computer systems and applications in wired and wireless environments.

For more information, see www.cs.mu.oz.au/courses/mbc/medc.html.