09.03.10
by

Wenjing Wu, Citizen Cyberscience in China: CAS@home

CAS researcher focuses on where volunteer computing and thinking can help. Well known in China, and well trusted.

Chinese volunteer demographics, 42k BOINC users, 420m total internet users, 1.33bn total population. Most volunteers come from eastern developed part of China. Ave age around 27, 90% male, most are students, IT pros, mid-income workers.

EQUN.com, project started in 2003 to translate and provide information on other volunteer computing projects.

Concerns about volunteer computing:

  • Barriers
    • Language barriers
    • Complication of registration and participation
    • Lack of consciousness of science and contribution
  • Security
    • Internet environment unsafe
    • Piracy
    • Usage of public computers
  • Energy
    • Based on coal – worthwhile?
    • Extra air conditioning in hot season
    • High bills
  • China
    • When will China have their own project
    • Now have CAS@home

CAS@home is first volunteer project in China, launched Jan 2010, based at Inst of High Energy Physics, and Chineses academy of sciences. Uses BOINC.

First application is to predict protein structure. Comparing structure of proteins with existing templates to predict structure. Templates are independent so data can be analysed in parallel.

Future project will be to study physics theories in tau-charm energy region, like strong interaction and weak interaction.

Computing for water cleaning, run on IBM World Computing Grid, simulating new low-cost low-pressure water filters. Filters use nanotubes, as flow resistance in carbon nanotubes is 1000x lower than predicted, so work at low pressure. Physical mechanism not fully understood. Want to simulate this in more detail using molecular dynamics.