Workflow tool for engineers in a grid-enabled Matlab environment

The Geodise Project aims to aid engineers in the design process by making available a suite of design search and optimisation tools and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis packages integrated with distributed Grid-enabled computing, databases and knowledge management technologies. Engineering Design Search and Optimisation (EDSO) is a a long and repetitive process requiring a complex sequence of tasks to be scripted together. We have developed a visual workflow tool with a friendly graphic user interface (GUI) to assist in the generation and execution of these scripts. It provides a set of functions: workflow construction, resource validation, script generation, process automation, job state monitoring and visualisation. Our workflow tool generates scripts in Matlab, which is familiar to Engineers and allows them to be re-used. Future work will incorporate a range of knowledge support mechanisms into the Workflow tool to assist in workflow construction and configuration