Ever wish you could play a direct role in helping to find a cure for AIDS, muscular dystrophy or cancer? You can – by joining the World Community Grid.
At any one time at York University, countless personal computers sit idle. The World Community Grid works by harnessing that idle time to provide researchers with a readily available pool of computer processing power that can be used to solve macro research problems, such as curing diseases. York is the first Canadian university to join the Grid.
The World Community Grid, powered by IBM, uses idle home or work computers – PC or Mac – joined by grid technology to provide researchers with a large system of massive computational power that far exceeds the power of a few supercomputers.
York has established its own group on the grid, the "York University Research" team. To date, scores of York people have joined the team and York hopes you’ll join too. Its success depends on the voluntary contribution of unused or idle computer time to a not-for-profit endeavour.
To join the York University Research team, individuals should go to York’s World Community Grid Web page. They will be asked to download and install a free, small software agent onto the computer – either home, school or office. The York page explains how to register as part of the York team.
When idle, the computer will request data from the World Community Grid’s server. Computers then perform computations using this data, send the results back to the server and ask for a new piece of work. Each computation that a computer on the grid performs provides research scientists with critical information that accelerates the pace of the research.
To learn more about York University’s involvement in this global research effort, and for information on how to register and join the York University Research team, visit York’s World Community Grid Web page.
University officials involved with the project say they want York to become the single largest contributing group to the World Community Grid. By registering now, campus computer users can help York help the world.