WS-PGRADE/gUSE-Based Science Gateways in Teaching - Science Gateways for Distributed Computing Infrastructures - page 218

16.3 Teaching with Customized WS-PGRADE-Based
Gateways

16.3.1 Supporting Life Sciences and Computer Games
Education at the University of Westminster

WS-PGRADE gateways are also utilized at the UoW in a couple of other modules
as supporting tools for the student

s work and experience. The user interfaces in
these scenarios are fully customized and were built using the WS-PGRADE ASM
API. Currently two custom portlets are available: one for 3D animations rendering
and the other for molecular docking. Both portlets are part of the University of
Westminster Desktop Grid Gateway. The computational resources behind this
gateway are provided by the University

'

s BOINC-based local desktop grid that
harnesses the free computing capacity of almost 2,000 laboratory PCs.
The animations rendering portlet is applied within a module entitled 3D Ani-
mation, which is offered for both undergraduate multimedia computing and also for
computer games development students. The module has a coursework component
where students implement their own short animated movies using the Maya 3D
animation package. When rendering their animation, students can access and utilize
the WS-PGRADE-based distributed rendering tool. It not only speeds up the ren-
dering of their coursework, but also provides them with an introduction to distrib-
uted rendering that is widely used in their area. As the tool is rather user-friendly,
typically only a short 30-min introduction is provided to students during laboratory
work regarding its usage. Several students have tried and successfully applied the
tool as part of their coursework during the past 3 years. The ASM-based user
interface showing the creation of a new rendering task and a sample screenshot from
a student

'

is animated movie is illustrated in Fig. 16.2 .
Also customASM-based portlets are utilized within the Molecular Bioinformatics
postgraduate module that hosts students from the Medical Molecular Biology,
Pharmacology, and Biomedical Sciences courses of the UoW. The module teaches
students about various molecular docking and dynamics tools, and as part of the
experience they are also introduced to the WS-PGRADE based custom molecular
docking interface. This set of portlets offers access to AutoDock 4 and AutoDock
Vina-based docking scenarios (random blind docking and virtual screening). Based
on the module and their experience with the gateway, some students also do their

'

nal
year project work in the area, further utilizing the WS-PGRADE-based user interface.

16.3.2 MosGrid Portal Usage in Drug Design Teaching
at the University of T ü Tübingen.

The Drug Design 1 lecture is part of the bioinformatics students ' curriculum at the

University of T ü Tübingen. Originally, it was targeted for master students, but it is also