Reconfiguring practice: the interdependence of experimental procedure and computing infrastructure in distributed...

Area of Science:

• Earthquake Engineering
• Distributed Systems
• Laboratory Automation

Background:

• Transitioning local laboratory practices to distributed environments highlights the interplay between experimental procedures and technology.
• New computing infrastructure is being embedded in laboratories to facilitate shared experiments across geographically distributed sites.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze how the relationship between experimental procedure and technology reconfigures laboratory practices in earthquake engineering.
• To examine the adaptation of local practices for coordinating distributed earthquake experiments.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of laboratory practices during the integration of new computing infrastructure.
• Case study of the UK Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (UK-NEES) e-Research project.
• Examination of modifications in experimental procedures to support distributed experimentation.

Main Results:

• The integration of computing infrastructure made the interdependence of experimental procedure and technology explicit.
• Researchers successfully adapted local laboratory practices by modifying experimental procedures.
• Coordination of geographically distributed earthquake engineering experiments was facilitated.

Conclusions:

• Adapting experimental procedures is key to successfully implementing distributed laboratory practices.
• The reconfiguration of practices enables efficient coordination of complex, multi-site experiments.
• This work provides insights into the challenges and solutions for distributed experimental science.