The future development of computer science depends on researchers’ ability to conduct consistent, controlled, and repeatable large-scale experiments in large-scale, distributed computing and networking.

To tackle this challenge, the FutureGrid project helped host the Workshop on Experimental Support for Computer Science during the SC11 conference in November 2011.

The workshop brought together many scientists involved in building and operating infrastructures dedicated to supporting computer science experiments.

A new report, “Supporting Experimental Computer Science,” distills the discussion from that workshop into a consensus on the state of the field and directions for moving forward. FutureGrid provides infrastructure for experimental computer science and seeks to contribute to the development of experimental culture in computer science via reports such as this.