A growing gap between progress in biological knowledge and improved health outcomes inspired the new discipline of translational medicine, in which the application of new knowledge is an explicit part of a research plan. Abramson and Parashar argue that a similar gap between complex computational technologies and ever-more-challenging applications demands an analogous discipline of translational computer science, in which the deliberate movement of research results into large-scale practice becomes a central research focus rather than an afterthought. We revisit from this perspective the development and application of grid computing from the mid-1990s onwards, and find that a translational framing is useful for understanding the technology's development and impact. We discuss how the development of grid computing infrastructure, and the Globus Toolkit, in particular, benefited from a translational approach. We identify lessons learned that can be applied to other translational computer science initiatives.
@article{arxiv.2008.09591,
title = {Translating the Grid: How a Translational Approach Shaped the Development of Grid Computing},
author = {Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.09591},
year = {2020}
}