Kepler: A System for Scientific Workflows

Kepler Project

Kepler is a tool for creating and executing complex scientific and engineering analyses and models using scientific workflows to tie together diverse computational systems in a unified framework.

Scientists in a variety of disciplines (e.g., biology, ecology, astronomy) need access to scientific data and flexible means for executing complex analyses on those data. Such analyses can be captured as 'scientific workflows' in which the flow of data from one analytical step to another is captured in a formal workflow language. The Kepler Project's (http://kepler-project.org) overall goal is to produce an open-source scientific workflow system that allows scientists to design scientific workflows and execute them efficiently using emerging Grid-based approaches to distributed computation.

You can select from one of the example workflows below or create your own by going to the file menu and selecting new/graph editor. Please send any questions/comments to our user mailing list at kepler-users@ecoinformatics.org.

Documentation

Additional background information on Ptolemy, the system that Kepler extends and builds upon, might be useful to some users.

Workflow Demonstration Examples

Workflow Description
Statistical Summary This is a simple example of a scientific workflow that calculates several statistical summary parameters.
Simple Addition Add two numbers and display the result.
Lotka Volterra Predator Prey This model shows the solution to the classic Lotka-Volterra predator prey dynamics model.
Image Display This workflow reads an image file in JPEG format from a local file on disk, converts it to PNG format, and displays the result.
Hello World The classic "Hello World" in Kepler. This workflow simply prints a constant value to a display window.
Linear Regression This is an example of how one can carry out a simple linear regression analysis using R and add the regression line to a scatter plot.
Web Services and Data Transformation This workflow demonstrates the use of the remote genomics data service to retrieve a genetic sequence.
Command Line 1 This is an example of how to use the 'CommandLineExec' actor. This is one of two actors in Kepler that execute CommandLine applications from within Kepler.
Command Line 2 This is an example of using the 'External Execution' actor to execute an external application from within Kepler.

 

Kepler Project Background

Kepler is an open collaboration with many contributors from diverse domains of science and engineering (see Contributors list below). Kepler was founded by researchers at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at University of California Santa Barbara, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at University of California San Diego, and the University of California Davis as part of the SEEK and SDM projects. Kepler extends the Ptolemy II system developed by researchers at the University of California Berkeley.

Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge SDM Center Ptolemy Project

Contributors

The following people contributed to the Kepler project by helping to design, code, document, or otherwise improve the system. We welcome participation of all kinds (see the Kepler web site for details).
NameUsernameInstitutionFirst commit
Matthew JonesjonesNCEAS, UCSB2003-08-08
Chad Berkley berkleyNCEAS, UCSB2003-08-08
Ilkay AltintasaltintasSDSC, UCSD2003-08-08
Efrat FrankjaegerSDSC, UCSD2003-09-29
Bertram LudaescherludaeschUC Davis2004-02-06
Jing TaotaoNCEAS, UCSB2004-03-22
Steve MockmockSDSC, UCSD2004-03-23
Zhengang ChengchengNCSU2004-04-06
Xiaowen XinxinLLNL2004-04-09
Dan HigginshigginsNCEAS, UCSB2004-06-18
Yang ZhaozhaoUC Berkeley2004-07-06
Christopher BrooksbrooksUC Berkeley2004-07-22
Tobin FrickefrickeSDSC, UCSD2004-07-26
Rod SpearsrspearsU Kansas2004-09-20
Werner KrebskrebsSDSC, UCSD2004-10-04
Shawn BowersbowersUC Davis2004-10-26
Wibke SudholtsudholtSDSC, UCSD2005-03-16
Timothy McPhillipsmcphillipsUC Davis2005-05-27
Bing ZhuzhuSDSC, UCSD2005-06-03
Jagan KomminenikommineniMonash U, Australia2005-06-15
Nandita MangalmangalSDSC, UCSD2005-07-24
John HarrisharrisNCEAS, UCSB2005-08-26
Kevin RulandrulandU Kansas2005-09-13
Matthew BrookebrookeNCEAS, UCSB2005-09-16
Jenny WangjwangSDSC, UCSD2005-10-19
Oscar BarneybarneySDSC, UCSD2005-10-24
Zhije GuanguanSDSC, UCSD2006-02-07
Laura DowneydowneyLTER, UNM2006-02-14
Norbert PodhorszkipodhorszUC Davis2006-02-21
Tristan KingkingJCU, Australia2006-04-20
Josh MadinmadinNCEAS, UCSB2006-05-18
Edward LeeleeUC Berkeley2006-09-22
Kirsten Menger-Andersonkanderson2007-03-20
Daniel CrawlcrawlSDSC, UCSD2007-04-18
Derik BarseghianbarseghianNCEAS, UCSB2007-05-04
Lucas GilbertgilbertSDSC, UCSD2007-05-25
Nathan PotterpotterOPenDAP2007-08-09
Ben LeinfelderleinfelderNCEAS, UCSB2007-09-24
Carlos RuedaruedaUC Davis2007-09-25
Mark SchildhauerschildNCEAS, UCSB

Copyright and License

This software is copyrighted by The Regents of the University of California (and others) and is released under this open source license.

Acknowledgements and Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under awards 0225676 for SEEK, 0225673 (AWSFL008-DS3) for GEON, 0619060 for REAP, and 0722079 for Kepler/CORE; by the Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-FC02-01ER25486 for SciDAC/SDM; and by DARPA under Contract No. F33615-00-C-1703 for Ptolemy.