Writing Samples

Create AI, fight disease or find aliens

For as long as there have been people with surpluses and people with shortages, the spirit of charity has been there. Now, through the magic of distributed computing, spare CPU cycles can be donated to a good cause. Many scientific endeavours that require huge amounts of CPU power are now using clever client and server applications to manage complex calculations in manageable blocks. So, unless you work at your computer 24/7, you've got CPU cycles to spare and there's probably an organization out there with a distributed computing cause you can really get behind!

The world of distributed computing for science has dozens of projects on the go ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. In addition to being able to feel good knowing you are helping your cause, many distributed computer projects offer additional incentives to participate such as contests and random prize draws.

In the last year or so, you've probably heard of the SETI at Home project. If you haven't, SETI at Home lets well-meaning E.T. seekers help those ambitious cats at Berkeley analyze the immense amounts of radio data they have been collecting, looking for something less random than the garden-variety background noise of our universe. The distributed computing community is also hard at work to discredit the American government's minimum legislated standard for encryption keys by cracking the current 56 bit standard.

Statistics show that one in four people will suffer with cancer at one time or another. With the generous support of Intel and United Devices, the Intel-United Devices Cancer Research Project was launched to help harness distributed computing power towards the search for new cancer treatments. United Devices has donated the central servers and bandwidth required to manage all the client computers working on the project. The project targets several proteins that have been determined to be potential candidates for cancer therapy. The client software uses a process called 'virtual screening' to try millions of possible ways that a potential drug treatment would react, or 'dock', with the target protein and then returns the results to United Devices over the Internet. The Intel-United Devices Cancer Research Project is currently working to break the one million-computing-hours mark.

In order to participate in the Cancer research project, your computer needs at least an Intel Pentium processor or equivalent, Windows 95 or later operating system, 8 bit graphics at 800x600 resolution or better and an Internet connection.

Another project utilizing the power of distributed computing is the Fight AIDS at Home project. Sponsored and powered by the Entropia corporation's client and server technology, the Fight AIDS at Home project is using spare CPU cycles to test possible drug treatment candidates in much the same way that the United Devices Cancer Project does. So far, the Entropia 2000 client has helped AIDS research harness the computing power of over 100,000 computers in more than 80 countries. To help out, you need a Pentium 133 or faster computer running Windows 95 or later with Internet Explorer 5.x or later and at least 96 MB of RAM.

Process Tree Volunteers is hosting a project that targets yet another pressing issue — the storage of nuclear waste. The PTV effort runs in cooperation with the work of Swedish radiation scientist Peter Janssons (http://www.jansson.net/) who is seeking new storage strategies for radioactive waste produced as a by-product industrial processes such as the generation of electricity.

If none of the above projects excites you, there is still a vast selection of distributed computing projects to choose from. I have included a link below to a listing of some of the current ones in areas of interest from mathematics to fine art!

So, if grassroots participation in a good cause is your thing, getting involved in a distributed computing project may really appeal to your sense of community spirit. Start today and put those spare CPU cycles to good use in your favourite distributed computing endeavour! M

URLs in order of mention

SETI at home
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

RC5 Distributed Net project
http://www.distributed.net

United Devices Cancer Research
http://www.ud.com

Fight AIDS at Home
http://www.fightaidsathome.com

Process Tree Volunteers
http://dcypher.net

Entropia
http://www.entropia.com

Online listing of Internet-based distributed computing projects
http://www.nyx.net/~kpearson/distrib-projects.html