CSSI Elements: EWMS - Event Workflow Management Service

This award will begin developing an Observation Management System Framework which will help alleviating multiple types of astrophysical data and respective workflow management - a burden shouldered now by human researchers who process large numbers of independent pieces of data (“events”). The core element of this framework - Event Workflow Management System (EWMS) - is a workload manager designed for processing events (simulated readouts from a particle physics detector, recorded data points, images, etc.) with complex workflows.

EWMS could become a central core for applying novel computer science methods to improve scientific data processing with an initial focus on Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (MMA) - it will transform how ”event”-based computational problems are tackled on the national CI ecosystem through a set of reusable services. This paradigm is applicable across a wide range of science domains, including astrophysics, astronomy, physics, biology, and other disciplines that deal with Big Data flows.

The EWMS will benefit three of NSF’s 10 big ideas – “Growing Convergence Research,” “Harnessing the Data Revolution,” and “Windows on the Universe", bringing together data from the particle physics-based detectors (IceCube Neutrino Observatory, High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory, Cherenkov Telescope Array), traditional astronomical observatories (large telescopes), and gravitational wave observatories (LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA). While the data types of each of these experiments or observatories are dramatically different, they all record data in the independent spatio-temporal increments, observations, triggers, events, etc. that are processed and stored separately.

The EWMS is applicable to nearly all current workflows in MMA experiments, and by combining these most precise observations via EWMS, scientists will be able to observe the Universe in fundamentally new ways and learn more about its history than any one of these messengers can provide in isolation. Thus, this award addresses and advances the science objectives and goals of the NSF's "Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics" program.

This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the Windows on the Universe Program, the Physics at the Information Frontier Program, the IceCube Science Program, the Antarctic Astrophysics and Geospace Sciences Program, and the Office of Polar Programs CyberInfrastructure Program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.