http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec06/NYSgrid.ws.html
The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) has joined other academic and research institutions in New York in founding the New York State Grid (NYSGrid) to share computer applications and data storage and run demanding applications on more than one computer at a time.
So far, NYSGrid includes 20 academic institutions and four supporting members. Linda Callahan, executive director of CTC, is a member of its governing board.
NYSGrid will create "middleware" to free users from the complexities of navigation. A researcher at the University of Rochester, for example, might have a computer model that simulates the propagation of pollutants in Lake Ontario. NYSGrid could collect data from, say, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, arrange for processing time on a computer at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, transfer the results to a graphics program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, and return a video visualization.