World Community Grid

World Community Grid
Area:	Biology and biochemistry
Target:	various scientific calculations
Operator:	IBM and others
Country:	International
Platform:	BOINC
Website:	www.worldcommunitygrid.org
Project status
Status:	active
Start:	Nov 16, 2004

The World Community Grid (WCG) is a non-commercial project for distributed computing and grid computing supported by IBM . Computer users who install the software on their computers can use the excess computing power of their computers to carry out scientific calculations or the like. World Community Grid unites several projects under one surface. Projects like WCG save the institutes from having to purchase expensive supercomputers .

The project is mainly run by the main sponsor IBM. The program was initially only as a separate client for Windows - operating systems available, since November 1, 2005, however, there is also a Linux version and since 2006, a Mac version running on the BOINC based client, Windows also is possible since then BOINC . The software is now based on BOINC for all supported operating systems.

Working method

The original World Community Grid software from United Devices combined the unused computing power of home computers with Internet access in order to use it for various humanitarian projects. The function of this program is now taken over by the BOINC software, whereby WCG is still an overall project for various sub-projects, primarily in the field of medical and protein research. Since August 2013 there is also an Android - app with which the user can also provide the unused computing power of their smartphones to projects.

In order to increase motivation, ranking lists are created for the individual users, and the users can join forces in teams, for which there are in turn ranking lists. Due to the different counting methods in the original UD client and the current BOINC, there are two parallel lists, in one all calculations are recorded, in the other only the results calculated under BOINC.

history

The project was founded on November 16, 2004 by IBM. The technology was initially provided by United Devices Inc. , which also ran a project for distributed computing with its cancer research project United Devices Cancer Research Project . The first project was run simultaneously on United Devices' platform grid.org and in the World Community Grid. In August 2007, the project operators announced that they would concentrate on the BOINC platform in the future. In July 2008 the migration to BOINC was completed.

As of January 2017, over 700,000 members with over 3,000,000 computers have provided the project with more than 1,300,000 years of computing time. The World Community Grid currently achieves a computing performance of 582 Tera FLOPS . It is therefore one of the largest projects in the field of distributed computing.

Projects

All projects participating in World Community Grid are led by non-profit organizations and their results are published under the public domain . In the BOINC environment, the designation project is a bit fuzzy, as both the entire World Community Grid and the individual sub-projects are referred to as a project.

It is possible to choose between the various projects and to support all or just individual projects. However, the projects have different system requirements, so that participation in a certain project may not be possible.

active

• OpenPandemics - COVID-19 - Search for drugs against COVID-19 together with Scripps Research
• Africa Rainfall Project - Improvement of rain shower forecasts in Africa together with the TU Delft
• FightAIDS @ Home - Phase 2: Search for drugs against AIDS
• Help Stop TB : Simulation of the protective mechanisms of the molecules of mycobacteria that cause tuberculosis
• Mapping Cancer Markers : Comparison of tissue samples for the detection of tumor markers
• Microbiome Immunity Project : To identify the impact of microorganisms in the body on type I diabetes
• Smash Childhood Cancer : Search for drugs against the most common types of cancer in children

Completed

• AfricanClimate @ Home : This project by the University of Cape Town examines climate models from some selected regions in Africa
• Computing for Clean Water : Analysis of the flow behavior of water with the aim of developing better materials for drinking water filters
• Computing for Sustainable Water : Studying the impact of human activity on a large water catchment, Chesapeake Bay
• Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together - Phase 1 and 2: Tries to develop drugs against the Flaviviridae family - such as dengue fever , hepatitis C , West Nile virus or yellow fever
• Drug Search for Leishmaniasis : a project that searches for molecules that could be useful in developing a drug for leishmaniasis
• Fight AIDS @ Home - Phase 1: Formerly an independent project of the Olson Laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute, for medicines against AIDS investigated
• Genome Comparison : Creation of a comparison database of the complete human genome
• GO Fight Against Malaria project by the Olson Laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute , which for new drugs against the previously drug-resistant forms of malaria searches
• Help Conquer Cancer : Together with the Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI), the Princess Margaret Hospital and the University Health Network, efforts are being made to refine results from protein crystallography and thus improve the understanding and treatment of cancer
• Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy - Phase 1 and 2: Research into the interaction of proteins that play a role in the development and possible therapy of myotonic dystrophy , a group of neuromuscular diseases
• Help Defeat Cancer : Microarray research aimed at faster and more accurate cancer diagnosis
• Help Fight Childhood Cancer : Trying to find drugs that make certain proteins ineffective for neuroblastoma relief
• Human Proteome Folding Project - Phase 1 and 2: The aim is to predict the structure of human proteins and their permanent transformation
• Influenza Antiviral Drug Search : Finding new cures for influenza to prevent an existing infection from spreading throughout the body.
• Nutritious Rice for the World : This is a University of Washington project in the fight against hunger around the world. Attempts are made to analyze the protein structures of important rice varieties
• OpenZika : Finding new cures for Zika
• Outsmart Ebola Together : Finding New Cures For Ebola
• Say No to Schistosoma : search for chemical substances to new drugs against schistosomiasis could lead
• The Clean Energy Project - Phase 1: This is a Harvard University project to find better materials for solar energy generation and storage
• The Clean Energy Project - Phase 2: Continue the search for better materials for solar cells
• Uncovering Genome Mysteries : Comparison of around 200 million proteins from the gene pool of a large number of known and unknown organisms.

See also

• List of Distributed Computing Projects - Other Grid Computing Projects

Web links

• World Community Grid Main Page
• World Community Grid statistics from BOINC
• German-language WCG wiki with an attached forum
• German-language information page on the World Community Grid

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewAboutUs.do
2. ↑ http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/help/viewTopic.do?shortName=runagent#339
3. ↑ http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=15715
4. ↑ http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewGlobal.do
5. ↑ http://boincstats.com/en/stats/15/project/detail
6. ↑ Research: OpenPandemics - COVID-19: Project Overview , project page at WCG
7. ↑ Cruciale data, betere oogst. Improve a nieuw partnerschap om neerslag prognosis , project page at WCG
8. ↑ Research: FightAIDS @ Home: Project Overview , project page at WCG
9. ↑ Research: Help Stop TB: Project Overview , project page at WCG
10. ↑ Help improve the odds for cancer patients , project page at WCG
11. ↑ Mapping new territory inside our bodies , project page at WCG
12. ↑ You can help researchers smash childhood cancer , project page at WCG