Contribute To Science With BOINC!
Have you ever wish that you are a scientist working hard at the cutting edge of research? Do you want to help humanity progress in the forefront of science?
Now you can! And all you need is a working computer/ mobile device and BOINC!
Introduction To BOINC
BOINC stands for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. BOINC is an open-source system which supports volunteer and grid computing. It is the platform which enables researchers in large diverse disciplines (of mathematics, linguistics, medicine, molecular biology, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics) to tap into the enormous processing resources of multiple personal computers and handheld mobile devices around the world.
BOINC enables you to donate the unused computing power of the CPU and GPU in your computer/mobile devices to do scientific computer. BOINC is smart enough to suspend itself (stop computing) when it detects that you are using the computer/mobile devices.
Click here for a list of available projects for the BOINC platform.
Mini Physics supports/endorses the World Community Grid. World Community Grid is a philanthropic initiative of IBM Corporate Citizenship, the corporate social responsibility and philanthropy division of IBM.
World Community Grid has supported 27 research projects to date, including searches for more effective treatments for cancer, HIV/AIDS and neglected tropical diseases. Other projects are looking for low-cost water filtration systems and new materials for capturing solar energy efficiently.
Credit System In BOINC
The various distributed-computing projects on the BOINC platform offers an “incentive” for people to donate the computing power of their computers/mobile devices. The projects rewards volunteers with “credits” for completed computational work.
Please note that:
- The credits are purely for show. It does not have economical value. E.g. You are unable to exchange 1 credit for cold hard cash in real life.
- Each projects have their own ratio of credit/CPU-second. (I.e. You will receive different amount of credit for each hour of computational time across different projects)
In BOINC Manager, “work done” is the total credit awarded to your account. “Average work done” is the recent average credit (RAC), an estimate of your daily contribution.
Download BOINC
You may download BOINC by following this link.
The following platforms are supported:
- Windows
- MAC OS
- Linux
- Android
Leave a comment below if you encounter any problems.
Happy Crunching!
Internal Links
Lesson Links
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- Historical Physics Discoveries That Changed the World
- Sense of Scale: How Small Are We in the Universe?
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