Workshops Archive

Distinguished Talk: The Evolution of Automation in Science — The Pegasus Perspective

Workshop: WORKS 2025: 20th Workshop on Workflows in Support of Large-Scale Science

Authors: Ewa Deelman (University of Southern California (USC))

Abstract: Over the past two decades, the scientific workflow community has transformed how science is conducted at scale — moving from manual scripting and ad hoc data movement to automated, intelligent systems that enable reproducible, data-driven discovery. Since its founding in 2006, the WORKS workshop has chronicled this evolution, documenting the shift from early grid-enabled workflows to today’s AI-augmented, self-optimizing systems.
This talk reflects on that journey through the lens of the Pegasus Workflow Management System, one of the earliest and most enduring platforms for scientific automation. It traces how core computer science principles—abstraction, optimization, provenance, and adaptability—have guided Pegasus’s evolution from workflow planning for distributed systems to orchestrating AI-driven, agentic, and self-managing workflows. The talk will conclude with a look toward the future of science automation, where hybrid physical and cyber infrastructures work together to advance knowledge and discovery.

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