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Where may I get the BOINC client for Windows, Linux, or Mac?

If you are a new member and do not currently have a World Community Grid member name, you may register and download the BOINC client here. If you are currently a World Community Grid member and want to download the BOINC client to a new, or additional computer(s), you may download the BOINC client client here.

I want to contribute to one of World Community Grid's research projects. How do I register for a particular research project and start contributing?

Members only need to register and attach once to World Community Grid in order to contribute to any, or all, of our research projects. In order to contribute, please take the following steps:

1. Register with World Community Grid
2. Select which of our research projects you wish to contribute to:
   • The registration process gives you a list of research projects to choose from
   • If you are already registered, you may change which projects you contribute to on your My Projects page
3. If you do not already have BOINC installed, download and install the software
4. If you already have the current version of BOINC installed, then you may participate in World Community Grid using your existing BOINC software. Just attach to World Community Grid using the URL: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org and the email address and password you used at registration.

Is there an easy way for my friends to join my team?

Yes. At the bottom of your My Team page are two web addresses that provide an easy way for your friends to join your team.

The first web address may be sent in an email to your friends that are already members of World Community Grid and they may just click on the web address and then click on the join now button on the page that appears.

The second web address may be sent in an email to your friends that are not currently members of World Community Grid. When they register, the team will be automatically selected for them. Let them know that they will still need to download and install the World Community Grid software.

Is there a vaccine for schistosomiasis?

There are currently no vaccines available for schistosomiasis.

What is my BOINC account key and where do I find it?

The BOINC Account key is a unique identifier that is used by the BOINC client and the BOINC server to uniquely identify you and the devices registered under your member name. You may find your BOINC account key on your My Profile page.

What is a World Community Grid team?

Once you register with World Community Grid, you have the option to join an existing team, or create a new team.  (Please note: to create a new team you are required to have a username.)

When you are on a team, you may compete with other teams for total run time, points, and results returned. Joining a team does not affect your individual member statistics.

How do I join the GO Fight Against Malaria project?

Detailed, step-by-step instructions are available at: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/viewRegister.do. After installing BOINC and registering to become a member of World Community Grid, your computing device is then automatically put to work on these projects, and you can continue using your device as usual.

Why do I have to opt into AfricanClimate@Home in order to participate?

The AfricanClimate@Home downloaded work unit size is anticipated to be approximately 77MB, which means it is approximately 150 times larger than a typical FightAIDS@Home or HPF2 work unit. Thus, a 756kbps network connection will take approximately 12-15 minutes to download the work unit. We have estimated that only about 33 percent of registered computers have enough bandwidth to be eligible to participate in this project.

I tried to recover my password via email but did not receive it. What is wrong?

The most common reason for this happening is that the email address in your profile is not correct. When registering, you were asked to provide an email address and you may have mistyped your email address, or your email address may have changed since then. If the email address is incorrect, and you no longer have access to the old email address, please use the Contact Us form to receive additional assistance.

How do I participate and donate my Android device's computing time?

Simply register for a World Community Grid account - during the registration process, you will be prompted to install the BOINC software on your Android device from the Google Play Store. Make sure to select 'World Community Grid' from the list of BOINC projects when you start the application.

If you're already a World Community Grid member, login to your account and go to the Download page instead.

What is different about World Community Grid and other BOINC distributed computing projects?

Many of the BOINC projects are oriented toward one single research goal. And for those, the researchers have to set up their own infrastructure and manage the workload themselves. World Community Grid is able to accommodate multiple research projects. We run these projects for researchers from nonprofit organizations so that they do not have to manage the work and thus are able to focus on the science part of the research. For more information about how projects are selected to run on World Community Grid click here

To learn how to register and start participating in World Community Grid click here

I registered my agent successfully but it is not running any task.

One possibility is that your device does not meet the minimum resources required for any of our projects. You may check our system requirements here.

If your device does meet our minimum system requirements, please review the Network Connections and Settings FAQs. If this doesn’t apply, please post in our BOINC Support Forum, as a member may be able to quickly assist you with your problem.

Is there a vaccine for Leishmaniasis?

Although there have been attempts to develop a vaccine against Leishmaniasis, there is currently no vaccine available.

Which World Community Grid projects can be run on Android devices?

Please see this FAQ for World Community Grid projects currently running on Android devices.

Is World Community Grid working with any cryptocurrency organizations?

World Community Grid does not currently have relationships with any organizations that create or distribute cryptocurrency. 

What do the small spheres in the screen saver represent?

The small spheres represent the atoms in both the target molecule and candidate molecule currently being processed by your device.

How many people are affected by schistosomiasis?

700 million people worldwide are at risk of getting schistosomiasis. Currently over 207 million people in 74 countries are infected. As many as 200 thousand die each year from the disease.

What is the cause of neuroblastoma?

The cause of neuroblastoma is currently unknown, though most physicians believe that it is an accidental cell growth that occurs during normal development of the adrenal glands and sympathetic ganglia.

What do the small spheres in the screen saver represent?

The small spheres represent the atoms in both the cell wall molecules and surrounding molecules currently being processed by your device.

What do the small spheres in the screen saver represent?

The small spheres represent the atoms in both the target protein molecule and candidate molecule currently being processed by your device.

How is schistosomiasis currently treated?

Antimony, oxamniquine, mirazid, and metrifonate are drugs that have been used to treat schistosomiasis, but these drugs are either not highly effective, have been discontinued, or work against only certain forms of the disease. An orally administered drug called praziquantel is currently the best treatment for schistosomiasis. However, there is evidence that Schistosoma may become resistant to praziquantel.

How is Leishmaniasis currently controlled?

Currently, control of the disease is accomplished primarily via chemotherapy and with measures to control the spread via insects and animals. The drugs used in the treatment of disease present problems of toxicity and other side effects. These adverse effects sometimes cause patients to discontinue treatment, which leads to drug resistance. In addition, the high cost of anti-Leishmania compounds is an inhibitor, because the disease is common mostly in developing countries.

What current treatments are available for those types of cancers? What are the current survival rates?

A combination of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy (including proton beam cancer therapy), and immunotherapy is applied to treat the patients with pediatric solid tumors. The survival rates of neuroblastoma, hepatoblastoma, brain tumors, and osteosarcoma depend on the tumor stages; the prognosis for those in advanced stages are usually very poor. Among those cancers, the survival rates for children with high-risk neuroblastoma or brain tumors are particularly low.

I have the same device listed more than once on my device list. Why is that?

When a device first contacts the server, the server creates a database record for the device. This record stores details like Operating System, available memory and how many times the device has communicated with the server. Each time the device communicates with the server, it compares various details about the device with its record on the server in an attempt to identify if it is the same device contacting the server. If anything appears different, the system will create a new record for the device and treat it as a new device. This prevents issues that can arise in different installation scenarious (such as in computer labs where each computer is setup identically and gets an identical installation image). Sometimes this leads to multiple entries for the same device in the website device list, but it ensures the proper functioning of the overall system.  

In situations where a new device listing is created, the previous device listing will no longer act as a contributing device (even though it is showing up in your device list). The Device Manager page and the Device Statistics page shows, by default, all of your devices that were registered within the past 7 days or that have returned a result within the past 14 days. Unused devices do not appear on this page when these time periods have passed.

How can I tell which version of the BOINC software I am using?

Right click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC, icon in the bottom right corner of your display (by the date and time). Click on “About World Community Grid – BOINC Client” or “About BOINC” and the current version of the software will be displayed.

If I re-install the software, will the work that I am doing be lost forever?

No. When the BOINC version of our software is reinstalled it will stop the current work unit(s) that your device is processing, install the new version of the BOINC software, and continue to process the same work unit(s).

What does the screen saver show?

The right portion of the screen saver shows both the target and candidate compound molecules, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.

What does the Progress Bar at the top represent?

This graphically shows the approximate percentage of how far along your device is in calculating the current task. When it reaches 100%, the computation is completed and the results will then be uploaded to the servers at World Community Grid before being packaged and sent back to the research team.

What does the screen saver show?

The right portion of the screen saver shows both the cell wall molecules and surrounding molecules, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.

What does the progress bar in the screen saver represent?

The progress bar, towards the bottom of the screen saver, represents approximately how much of the current task your device has processed. When it reaches 100%, the computation is complete and the results will then be sent back to World Community Grid, where they will be packaged and delivered to the Help Stop TB researchers.

Are there any existing treatments for the Zika virus?

There are currently no treatments for the Zika virus, and there is no vaccine. Because the disease’s symptoms are usually mild, it has not been widely researched until the most recent outbreak began in the Americas. Therefore, scientists are just beginning to understand the molecular structure of the viral components and the full implications of the disease.

Is there a Zika vaccine?

Because the Zika virus usually only has mild symptoms, and because it was not widespread until recently, there has been little research on a vaccine until the outbreak in Brazil began in 2015. Currently, there are several groups researching vaccines in India, Brazil and the United States, but no vaccine has been approved as of May 2016.

What does the screen saver show?

The right portion of the screen saver shows both the target protein and drug candidate molecules, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.

What does the screen saver show?

The right portion of the screen saver shows both the target protein and drug candidate molecule being evaluated, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.

How does an organic solar cell work?

Organic solar cells convert sunlight into electricity. The first step is that the organic solar cell must absorb light. This absorbed light adds energy into the material, causing the electrons in the material to increase their energy and move through the material, leaving behind a hole. Second, electrons must travel to a region where they can be collected by an acceptor material, lowering their energy (i.e., the donor-acceptor interface). Once the electrons are collected, they can be extracted to give a current, or they can remain in the device to give rise to a voltage. The electrons that leave the organic solar cell as current can deliver their energy to whatever is connected to the circuit.

How does an organic solar cell work?

Organic solar cells convert sunlight into electricity. The first step is that light must be absorbed in the organic solar cell. This absorbed light causes the electrons in the material to increase their energy. Second, electrons must travel to a region where they can be collected (i.e., the donor-acceptor interface). Once the electrons are collected, they can be extracted to give a current, or they can remain in the device to give rise to a voltage. The electrons that leave the organic solar cell as current can deliver their energy to whatever is connected to the circuit.

Will this project help stop the current H1N1 flu outbreak?

No. A search for potential drugs to combat influenza is a lengthy process and is unlikely to be helpful in the current outbreak. Once the computational portion of the project identifies the chemical compounds that are the best candidates, a considerable amount of laboratory testing and drug development is required before a drug is ready for safe and effective public use. The current H1N1 influenza outbreak is a reminder of how quickly influenza mutates and how easily new strains of the virus emerge. Seasonal outbreaks of influenza cause hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world each year. We want to leverage this understanding to encourage more people to volunteer their idle computer time and help us to accelerate this important research. However, with the large computational power of World Community Grid and your individual contributions of spare time from your computers, we can greatly accelerate the process, examine a much larger pool of chemicals and focus laboratory research on the best candidates for new treatments. Researchers will be well positioned to help respond to outbreaks of potentially more severe (or drug-resistant) influenza viruses in the future.

How do I change my country name?

To change your country name, take the following steps:

1. Sign in using your current member name and password.
2. Click the Settings link at the top of the page.
3. Select the My Profile option from the menu on the left.
4. On the My Profile page, select the country of your choice.
5. Enter your current password and press Save.

Why is solar energy important?

It is expected that by the year 2050 the world's energy requirements will double today’s demand. Energy is without doubt a prerequisite for economic stability in both the developed and developing world; despite its current importance, the actual energy system is far from being self-sustainable. Achieving a completely sustainable energy system will require technological breakthroughs that radically change our paradigms on how we produce and use energy. A possible solution to this problem is to use solar energy. Every hour, our sun produces enough solar energy to supply the whole world’s annual energy requirements. Finding the means to convert the incident solar energy into usable forms to maintain the current way of life represents a main objective of The Clean Energy Project team.

What about other mobile platforms?

At this time, World Community Grid can only support Android mobile devices, but we are investigating options to expand to other platforms in the future. Apple's App Store Review Guidelines does not currently allow apps that download code in any form, apps that install or launch other executable code, or multitasking apps. This is likely to prevent World Community Grid from being accepted as an iOS app.

In Simple View, on the BOINC Manager, do the green buttons on the project tabs change color if the processor is busy on some other task?

The presence of the green button indicates that the task is currently running. If it is not running, then the green button is not present. Additional information on the BOINC Manager - Simple view may be found here.

How do I view the website in another language?

The World Community Grid web site will automatically display in the language to which your browser is set. If that language is not currently available on the site, the default language is English. To change to another language, simply use the drop-down menu on the main navigation bar to select the desired language. All of the areas of the site that are available in the selected language will be automatically translated.

Do World Community Grid projects involve animal testing?

So far, none of our past or current projects have involved animal testing while they were running on World Community Grid.

World Community Grid projects are considered basic research, which means that they are studying the foundations of a particular scientific subject rather than testing treatments in a lab. If a project is successful, it may lead to animal testing (typically by a separate research group) at some time in the future.

Are there plans to continue work on Phase 1 simultaneously?

Yes, we plan to continue to do virtual screens of large chemical libraries against a number of HIV targets. As the biology of the HIV life-cycle continues to be researched by the HIVE Center, and other efforts around the world, new targets and variations of existing targets are discovered and can be used in our Phase 1 activities. We are still currently screening many variations and sites from HIV Protease, Integrase and Reverse Transcriptase.

Why is my device uploading result data (intermediate upload files) while a research task is still in progress?

We are using a mechanism called intermediate uploads whereby at certain processing milestones, your device would send us back partial results for the research task your device is currently working on. This allows us to validate the work you have completed up to that point and helps the researchers examine and interpret the results being returned by the volunteers.

What does the progress bar in the screen saver represent?

The progress bar towards the bottom of the screen saver represents approximately how much of the current task your device has processed. When it reaches 100%, the computation is complete and the results will then be sent back to World Community Grid, where they will be packaged and delivered to the FightAIDS@Home researchers.

What will the results of this project be?

The researchers will publish an open-access database of the protein sequence comparisons computed on World Community Grid.

We expect that this information will help scientists discover new enzymatic functions, find how organisms interact with each other and the environment, document the current baseline microbial diversity, and better understand and model complex microbial systems.

What will the results of this project be?

The researchers will publish an open-access database of the protein sequence comparisons computed on World Community Grid.

We expect that this information will help scientists discover new enzymatic functions, find how organisms interact with each other and the environment, document the current baseline microbial diversity, and better understand and model complex microbial systems.

Are there any markers that are currently used?

There are several markers in clinical use. Two particular markers for breast and ovarian cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2 recently received global attention after actress Angelina Jolie used them to assess her risk of developing the disease. In this particular case, only one marker BRCA1, in combination with family history was able to define her situation and to aid her in choosing her course of treatment.

Why was this project just looking at Africa?

Africa is already vulnerable to extremes in climate, and current climate change projections suggest that the region will be more vulnerable in the future. Thus a climate study for this region is important both for economic reasons and for understanding future vulnerability. The climate modeling techniques developed here may be applied to other regions of the world in the future.

What is the status of the Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy project?

The first phase of Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy was completed in June, 2007. The scientists are currently analyzing the phase 1 results in preparation for phase 2. We expect phase 2 to start in early 2009. You may read about the Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy project and the preparation for Phase 2 here.

Will my computing time only help the FightAIDS@Home project?

Your device will contribute to whatever projects you choose; however, only certain projects will be available for mobile devices. You can select from the projects currently active at World Community Grid by visiting the My Projects page. There you can view all available projects, and choose those in which you want to participate.

What is the difference between a vaccine and an antiviral drug?

A vaccine is administered before a person becomes infected. Vaccination usually consists of one or several shots which stimulate the immune system to protect against subsequent exposure to the virus.

Antiviral drugs are used when a patient is currently infected with the virus. They generally work by blocking the activity of the proteins that the virus uses to replicate itself or to infect other cells. These drugs must be taken by an infected patient multiple times, until the virus is destroyed.

What does the progress bar in the screen saver represent?

The progress bar, towards the bottom of the screen saver, represents approximately how much of the current task your device has processed. When it reaches 100%, the computation is complete and the results will then be sent back to World Community Grid, where they will be packaged and delivered to the Smash Childhood Cancer researchers.

What does the progress bar in the screen saver represent?

The progress bar, towards the bottom of the screen saver, represents approximately how much of the current research task your device has processed. When it reaches 100%, the computation is complete and the results will then be sent back to World Community Grid, where they will be packaged and delivered to the OpenPandemics researchers.

Why am I not contributing?

There are a number of reasons why you may not be contributing to World Community Grid. One of the primary reasons this happens is that you may have a new device, or a new storage disk, and you did not download the World Community Grid software to your new device. To understand why you are not currently contributing and learn how to start contributing again, please click here.

Where do I check on the status, statistics, etc. for my Team Challenge (or a challenge my team is participating in)?

Just go to your My Team page, and scroll down to the Challenge Control Panel. All team members will see up to five Current and Upcoming Team Challenges (team captains will see Pending Team Challenges as well). If your team has more than five Current Team Challenges or more than five Upcoming Team Challenges, you may click the link at the bottom of the Challenge Control Panel to view your team's entire Team Challenge History. In the Challenge Control Panel or Team Challenge History View you may click on the name of the challenge to view more details about the challenge; for example: scores for all teams in the challenge, the names of the other teams participating in the challenge, and whether the challenge is open or not. The Team Challenge History page is where you may view your team's past challenges.

Why do I get the error: exit code -1073741510 (0xc000013a) (On Windows Vista)?

The message exit code -1073741510 (0xc000013a) means that when you log off of Windows the application gets terminated quite abruptly. Vista can shut down very quickly and not allow BOINC enough time to stop properly. This problem was corrected in the 5.10.45 version of BOINC. Please ensure that you are running the latest recommended version of the World Community Grid software.

To determine what version you are currently running on your computer, right click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC, icon in the bottom right corner of your display (by the date and time). Click on “About World Community Grid – BOINC Client” or “About BOINC” and the current version of the software will be displayed.

You may check if you have the latest supported version of the World Community Grid software by visiting this page: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/viewDownloadAgain.do . The version number is displayed below the name of the agent for each operating system. If this number is the same as the version number that you have installed then you have the latest supported version.

How do I check if I have the latest supported version of the BOINC software?

You may check which version of the software that World Community Grid is currently supporting by visiting this page: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/viewDownloadAgain.do . The version number is displayed below the name of the agent for each operating system. If this number is the same as the version number that you have installed then you have the latest supported version.

How is my individual member rank calculated?

A member may see their individual stats on their My Contribution page for run time, points, and results returned. Your individual rank is based on the total number of members that have returned a result. You may see how many members there currently are on the Global Statistics page.