Citizen Science

Distributed Computing, Grid Computing, Donated Computing, Volunteer Computing, Citizen Science. Four names that mean much the same. Your computer gets bored with all the time it spends idling. It wants to do scientific research!

How to contribute some of your computer idle time.

Millions of computers around the world are participating in Citizen Science over the Internet, using the BOINC Manager to manage science projects. Many more remain idle , it’s computing power grossly under-utilised.

How to Join BOINC

Go to http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Download the BOINC Manager to your computer and install it.
Register your e-mail address and a password with BOINC.
Do not accept the invitation to join an Account Manager. It is not necessary and may complicate things at an early stage of your BOINC career.

How to Add a Project

All you need to do next is attach one or more science projects and you will be up and running:

Open the BOINC Manager software.
Select “View” then select “Advanced View”.
Select “Tools” then select “Add Project or Account Manager”.
Choose “Add Project” (do not choose “Use Account Manager”).
Select your project from the list.

Astronomy Projects

Cosmology@home	Search for a model of the Universe which best describes our Universe. When prompted, enter: http://www.cosmologyathome.org/
Einstein@home	Search for gravitational-wave emission from spinning neutron stars. When prompted, enter: http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/
LHC@home	Simulates upcoming experiments in Large Hadron Collider. When prompted, enter: http://lhcathomeclassic.cern.ch/sixtrack/
MilkyWay@home	Create a highly accurate three dimensional model of the Milky Way galaxy. http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/
Universe@home	Simulations dealing with fundamental problems of the Universe. When prompted, enter: https://universeathome.pl/universe/
Asteroids@home	Not currently active. When prompted, enter: http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/
SETI@home	Search for extra-terrestrial intelligent life. Not currently active.

Join Macarthur Astronomical Society BOINC Team

After setting up one or more projects inside the BOINC Manager, select the “Projects” tab; and for each project which you have joined within the BOINC Project Manager, you will see a “Home Page” button down the left hand side.

Selecting this button will take you to the individual project website. You may need to create a project log on. Locate your “Account Preferences” page and find the “Community” section to join “Macarthur Astronomical Society” or another team of your choice.

That’s all!

Thanks for joining!

In the Options/Computer Settings you can adjust the amount of CPU time your computer spends doing science. I suggest beginning with 50%, which effectively means that for every two seconds, the CPU will spend one second computing and one second idle.