IBM World Community Grid

World Community Grid is the virtual supercomputer helping scientists to solve humanitarian problems thanks to use of not used computing power of the personal computers connected to the Internet from around the world.

Features

World Community Grid network, being an initiative of the international fund IBM International Foundation, created an analog of one of the largest virtual supercomputers in the world for use in projects which bring huge benefit to all mankind, such as search of new methods of treatment of HIV/AIDS, researches in the field of oncological diseases and development of cost-efficient methods of water purification. World Community Grid a join path of the not used powers of 1.7 million personal computers which are voluntarily provided to 535 thousand users from more than 80 countries of the world functions. World Community Grid makes these computing powers available to scientists who would otherwise not be able to reach such high speeds of calculations in the course of the most difficult researches and to receive long-awaited results for adequate time.

This "national" resource gives to users of World Community Grid big advantages. So, research institute Scripps Research Institute, involving resources of World Community Grid network in the work, opened two new chemical compounds which can be used for development of the drugs helping to struggle with AIDS. Everyone can non-paid provide resources of the personal computers for the help in implementation of similar humanitarian projects, having registered on the Website www.worldcommunitygrid.org and having installed the small free safe program utility on the PCs working running the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS or Linux operating systems.

Expanding a scope, increasing available computing power, increasing the useful contribution to scientific research – in other words, continuing to develop successfully, World Community Grid network:

• Provides from the user computers of seven results of computing transactions every second (500000000 in general in six years since launch of World Community Grid)
• Executed the volume of calculations equivalent on time to 392000 years
• Made possible the publication of 31 scientific work
• Carries out computing tasks for the projects performed by the research and educational organizations honor from each continent of the planet
• Requires only three additional watts of the electric power on the average computer – less than a half of what consumes a seven-watt night lamp
• Executes 400 trillion computing transactions with a floating comma per second
• The IBM Watson supercomputer called in honor of the founder of IBM corporation Thomas Watson (Thomas J. Watson), was developed by group of scientists of IBM who set the grandiose task for themselves – to create the computing system which is not inferior to the person in capability quickly precisely and to answer authentically questions in natural human language (but not in machine codes). More detailed information can be found on the Website www.ibmwatson.com.

History

2017: IBM will help scientists to look for children's cancer medicine

On February 8, 2017 IBM announced start based on World Community Grid of the project thanks to which researchers will be able to look for new methods of treatment of nurseries oncological diseases, using computers and mobile devices of volunteers worldwide.

The initiative under the name Smash Childhood Cancer integrated the international team of experts and researchers from the Chiba University and Kyoto University in Japan, the University of Hong Kong and also the Children's medical center of Connecticut, Jackson and Meditsinsky's Laboratory of the center of the University of Connecticut in the USA.

IBM announced start based on World Community Grid of the project thanks to which researchers will be able to look for new methods of treatment of nurseries oncological diseases, using computers and mobile devices of volunteers worldwide

The new project expands search of medicines for treatment of a neuroblastoma and other forms of children's oncological diseases, including a brain tumor, Vilms's (nefroblastom) tumor, germinogenny tumors (influence reproductive and the central nervous system), gepatoblasty (liver cancer) and osteogene sarcoma (cancer of bones).

Anyone can become the participant of World Community Grid: it is only necessary to install the free application on the PC, the smartphone or the tablet which then in the automatic mode (when the owner does not use the device) will carry out calculations within the virtual scientific experiments.

The started program will help researchers to look for the potential medicines capable to affect the key molecules and proteins controlling processes in cancer cells in some types of oncological diseases at children.

The Smash Childhood Cancer project manager selects doctor Akira Nakagavara, the world famous specialist in children's oncology, the molecular biologist and the head of the medical center Saga Medical Center KOSEIKAN from Japan. Earlier Nakagavara used World Community Grid to detect drugs for treatment of a neuroblastoma (one of the most common forms of children's cancer).