‘Brain Drain in Africa’ expands to new countries

In 2006, HP launched a pilot project called ‘Piloting Solutions for Reversing Brain Drain in Africa’. The aim of the two-year project, which was undertaken in five countries in conjunction with UNESCO, was to use grid computing technology to develop and strengthen networks between experts working away from their own countries and university students at home.

The project has produced some very positive results. So much so that HP is now expanding the initiative. HP and UNESCO aim to create the first university grid for Africa and the Middle East by connecting one hundred universities via grid technology by 2011. Arnaud Pierson, Strategic Universities Research Collaboration Programme Manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa is managing the project and he spoke to HP about how it will work.

Q: The decision to expand the Brain Drain project in Africa is based on the success of the pilot project launched in 2006. Can you tell us about the success?
AP: The pilot Brain Drain project that we launched in 2006 involved universities from five countries: Senegal, Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe. The UCAD university in Senegal in now connected to the European Grid (EGEE) and the other four should be connected soon.

This success means that we can help to reduce the migration of African university graduates by giving them the tools that they need for their research. The grid in Senegal was set up by the Grid Computing Institute of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and it’s the first Sub-Saharan African component of the grid infrastructure created by the European Union in 2004. Creating this first link represents an important step in bridging the digital divide between North and South.

The two-year project has proved that grid computing provides many benefits in connecting individuals and institutions. We are now in a position to expand it, not just with grid computing, but also with more inventive technology - cloud computing.

Q: What are the differences and benefits of grid computing and cloud computing?
AP: Grid computing is the application of several computers to a single problem at the same time, usually to a scientific or technical problem that requires a great number computer processing cycles or access to large amounts of data.

It requires software to divide and apportion pieces of a programme among several computers, sometimes up to many thousands. Grid computing can also be regarded as distributed and large-scale cluster computing. It can be small, ie confined to a network of computer workstations within a corporation, or it can be a large, public collaboration across many companies or networks. This is the case with the grid computing technology in Senegal.

Cloud computing, on the other hand, is internet (‘cloud’)-based use of computer technology. It is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the internet. Users do not need any knowledge of, expertise in or control over the technology infrastructure in the ‘cloud’ that supports them.

With the expanded project for Africa and the Middle East, it is our intention to develop our grid computing technology further and to start using our new cloud computing technology as well. The different versions will be used in different countries, depending on their requirements.

Q: What will the benefits of the new project be? What are your objectives?
AP: Predominantly, we want to strengthen the teaching and research capacities of higher education institutions in Africa and the Middle East. That is our main objective.

We can do this by helping the participating universities to connect to networked resources in Africa and the Middle East and beyond, thus enabling the formation of virtual organisations and effective research and development collaboration, independent of geographical location.

We would like to create a core group of African and Middle Eastern experts, who can act as champions of the project and who can help develop an African grid by raising awareness of the benefits of grid (and cloud) computing among national policy and decision-makers. We also want to help participating universities modernise their IT infrastructure so that they can create environments for virtual links, collaborative work and interactions with experts worldwide.

We would also like to mobilise additional partners and funding organisations to support the project. Their help, be it through finance, local knowledge or technical expertise, contributes significantly to the project’s success.

Q: How long will this project run for and what are your plans for the future?
AP: This project will run until 2011. Our goal, during that time, is to reach as many universities and countries in Africa as we can. Ideally we’d like to reach between 50-100 universities and we shall be looking for industries and partners to help us along the way.

Q: What does this new project mean for HP in terms of social responsibility in EMEA?
AP: This project allows us to show our expertise, knowledge and engineering competencies in such technologies. It enables us to be the leader in this environment and demonstrates our efforts to provide much needed support for developing, emerging countries.