Semantics-assisted problem solving on the semantic grid

In this paper we propose a distributed knowledge management framework for semantics and knowledge creation, population, and reuse on the grid. Its objective is to evolve the Grid toward the Semantic Grid with the ultimate purpose of facilitating problem solving in e-Science. The framework uses ontology as the conceptual backbone and adopts the service-oriented computing paradigm for information- and knowledge-level computation. We further present a semantics-based approach to problem solving, which exploits the rich semantic information of grid resource descriptions for resource discovery, instantiation, and composition. The framework and approach has been applied to a UK e-Science project - Grid Enabled Engineering Design Search and Optimisation in Engineering (GEODISE). An ontology-enabled problem solving environment (PSE) has been developed in GEODISE to leverage the semantic content of GEODISE resources and the Semantic Grid infrastructure for engineering design. Implementation and initial experimental results are reported.