ARMONK, N.Y., July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In support of
the updated Climate Data Initiative announced by the White House
today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) will provide eligible scientists studying
climate change-related issues with free access to dedicated virtual
supercomputing and a platform to engage the public in their
research.
Each approved project will have access to up to 100,000 years of
computing time at a value of $60
million. The work will be performed on IBM's
philanthropic World Community Grid platform.
Created and managed by IBM, World Community Grid provides
computing power to scientists by harnessing the unused cycle time
of volunteers' computers and mobile devices. Participants get
involved by downloading software that runs when they take breaks or
work on lightweight computer tasks, such as browsing the
internet. The software receives, completes, and returns small
computational assignments to scientists. The combined power
contributed by hundreds of thousands of volunteers has created one
of the fastest virtual supercomputers on the planet, advancing
scientific work by hundreds of years.
IBM invites researchers to submit sustainability project
proposals to receive this free resource, and invites members of the
public to donate their unused computing power to these efforts at
worldcommunitygrid.org.
Through the contributions of hundreds of thousands of
volunteers, World Community Grid has already provided
sustainability researchers with many millions of dollars of
computing power to date, enabling important advances in scientific
inquiry and understanding.
For example, World Community Grid partnered with the
University of Virginia
on Computing for Sustainable Water, which studied the effects
of human activity on the Chesapeake Bay watershed to
understand what actions can lead to restoration, health and
sustainability of this important resource.
Harvard University's Clean
Energy Project has identified more than 35,000
materials with the potential to double carbon-based solar cell
efficiency, after screening and publicly cataloguing more than
two-million compounds on World Community Grid. This is believed to
be the world's most extensive quantum chemical investigation to
date. Until now, carbon-based solar cells were made from a handful
of molecules that were painstakingly discovered one by one. With
Harvard's work, there's thousands more
to explore.
World Community Grid's partnership with the University of Washington on Nutritious Rice
for the World modeled rice proteins and predicted their
function to help farmers breed new strains with higher yields and
greater disease and pest resistance, potentially providing new
options for regions facing changing climate conditions.
"Through his Climate Data Initiative, President Obama is calling
for all hands on deck to unleash data and technology in ways that
will make businesses and communities more resilient to climate
change," said John P. Holdren,
President Obama's Science Advisor. "The commitments being announced
today answer that call by empowering the U.S. and global
agricultural sectors with the tools and information needed to keep
food systems strong and secure in a changing climate."
World Community Grid is welcomed by researchers who don't have
the funds or dedicated access to powerful supercomputers that can
accelerate their simulations and virtual experiments. It has been
used to facilitate research into clean energy, clean water and
healthy foodstuffs, as well as cures for cancer, AIDS, malaria and
other diseases.
"Massive computer power is as essential to modern-day scientific
research as test tubes and telescopes," said Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice President, Corporate
Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President, IBM
International Foundation. "But due to scarce funding for research,
pioneering scientists often don't have access to supercomputers
vast enough to meet their research objectives. At IBM, we hope
that the equivalent of 100,000 years of computing time per
scientist will speed the next major breakthrough to help the world
meet the challenge of climate change."
Nearly three-million computers and mobile devices used by over
670,000 people and 460 institutions from 80 countries have
contributed power for projects on World Community Grid over the
last nine years. Since the program's inception, World Community
Grid volunteers have powered over 20 research projects, donating
nearly a million years of computing time to scientific research and
enabled important scientific advances in health and
sustainability.
For more information on World Community Grid, please visit
http://worldcommunitygrid.org/
For more information about IBM's philanthropic efforts, please
visit www.CitizenIBM.com
Contact(s) information:
Ari Fishkind
IBM Media Relations
914-499-6420
fishkind@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM Corporation