Search

What is validation?

World Community Grid is a volunteer computing grid. This means that work is being sent to computing devices that are outside the control of World Community Grid. Most devices that perform this work are reliable. However, there are a few devices that are not reliable due to things such as users over-clocking their machines, memory errors, disk errors, CPU errors or viruses being present. This means that the results returned need to be validated to make sure that they represent the correct answer.

We perform three different types of validation at World Community Grid:
 

• Redundant Computations: In this type of validation, two copies of the work unit are sent to members devices. Once both results are returned, they are compared to ensure that the results are identical. If they are, then the result is accepted. If they are not identical, then additional copies are sent until several devices agree on what the result should be. This policy establishes a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. Mapping Cancer Markers and Uncovering Genome Mysteries are examples of projects that use this technique.
• Single Validation - Type 1: In this type of validation, only one copy of a work unit will be sent to a device if the device is "trusted", that is, if it has been participating long enough and returning good results. If the device is not trusted, then it will still be assigned the work unit, but a second copy will be sent to another device and the rules for redundant computation above apply. As a precaution, the research code computes certain items that allow us to quickly check on the server if the computation is likely to have finished correctly. Additionally, trusted devices are randomly sampled to have their results double-checked. These techniques provide a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. FightAIDS@Home and Outsmart Ebola Together are examples of projects that have used this technique.
• Single Validation - Type 2: This is similar to Single Validation - Type 1 except that due to the fact that different results are generated each time the work unit is run (due to the research techniques applied in the application), we send out many copies of each work unit. We currently do not have any research projects utilizing this technique.

I have completed a result, but I have not yet received credit for it. What is going on?

BOINC does not award credit to users until the work they have performed has been successfully validated. This means that users may experience a delay in being granted credit while BOINC waits for enough results to be returned in order to perform validation.

Why are points not updated even though new work units have been downloaded?

Points are awarded for results when they have been successfully processed on your device. They are awarded after they have been returned to our servers and successfully passed validation. You may learn more about validation here. If you want to check the status of your result(s), you may view your results status page. Additionally, point totals are only updated on the website twice a day, so there can be up to a 12 hour delay between when your result is validated and the points appear on our website.

Why don't my statistics show up on the web site?

Your results are not counted until they are validated. You may read about result validation here.

Also, World Community Grid points and statistics are updated twice a day. This occurs at 00:00 and 12:00 UTC. This includes all statistics on World Community Grid except for Team Statistics.

Team Statistics are updated once a day at 00:00 UTC

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.

Why does this application require zero redundancy, i.e. no comparison of results across devices?

Unlike many of our research projects, FightAIDS@Home – Phase 2 does not require redundancy, where the same research task is sent to two devices and the results are compared for consistency. Instead, this project will be using various processing metrics during the computation of a research task to validate that the task is progressing without errors.

Is there an API to get a list of in-progress and recently returned results for a member?

Yes. The URL for the API to access a members results is:

https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/api/members/{member name}/results?code={verification code}

member name is the member name of the member whose results data you wish to access
verification code is found on the My Profile page of the member whose results data you wish to access

The default format is JSON.

You must set your data sharing preferences to "Display my data" for this API to return data for your account.

Optional parameters are (can be combined):

• limit: Defines the number of results returned. Default is 25.  Max is 250.
• offset: Defines how many results are skipped before the API returns any data. Default is 0.
• sortBy: Defines the sorting order of the results. Options are: DeviceId, SentTime, ReportDeadline, ReceivedTime or CpuTime. Default is SentTime.
• format: The format of the data. Options are XML or JSON. Default is JSON.
• modTime: Return results which were last modified on or after this time. This value is a Unixtimestamp (number of seconds since midnight Jan 1 1970).
• serverState: Return results based on whether they are currently in progress or have already been reported back to World Community Grid. 4 would return in-progress results, 5 would return results which have already been reported back to the server.
• outcome: Return results based on the outcome of their processing. 1 means success, 3 means error, 4 means no reply, 6 means validation error, 7 means abandoned./
• validateState: Return results based on the validation status. 0 means pending validation, 1 means valid, 2 means invalid, 4 means pending verification, 5 means results failed to validate within given deadline.
• fileDeleteState: Return results based on their file delete state.  0 means not deleted.  1 means ready to delete.  2 means deleted.

How are points calculated?

Points are calculated in a two-step process which attempts to give a consistent number of points for similar amounts of research computation. First, the computational power/speed of the computer is determined by periodically running a benchmark calculation. Then, based on the central processing unit (CPU) time spent computing the research result for a work unit, the benchmark result is used to convert the time spent on a work unit into points. This adjusts the point value so that a slow computer or a fast computer would produce about the same number of points for calculating the research result for the same work unit. This value is the number of point credits "claimed" by the client. More information about that formula is available here.

Second, research results returned to the servers are validated in a manner which depends on the research project. Then the claimed points for valid results are examined for anomalous (excessively high or low compared to other machines computing the same or equivalent work unit) values and adjusted accordingly. The servers assign the resulting adjusted point values to the member (and team) for each of the returned work units. This process eliminates the ability for malicious users to tamper with results and artificially claim higher points for their work.

What is a trickle up message?

A trickle up message is when your device sends a message back to World Community Grid at certain processing milestones to inform us that you’re still making progress on the current research task. Along with intermediate results sent to us by your device, we use this information to:

• Validate your work up to that point and grant credit accordingly;
• Determine whether sufficient progress is being made by your device or whether the task should be handed over to another volunteer.

Why do some work units remain on the Results Status page for a long period of time after they have been validated?

When more than one work unit for a particular research project shares the same input files, they are removed from the database in a different way than normal work units. All the work units that share the common input are left in the database until all work units that share the input files have completed successfully. If there a few work units in that group that error out, we then discuss with the research scientists how they would like the work units handled. In those cases, the work units will not be cleared from the database until we have agreement with the research scientists on how to proceed. This can cause some work units to stay in the database for an extended length of time.

How does the software return results?

The software returns a result to the World Community Grid servers in two phases. The first phase begins as soon as the workunit has finished processing. The first phase involves uploading the result files to the World Community Grid servers. The second phase consist of the software contacting the World Community Grid scheduler and notifying it that all the result files have been uploaded and the result is ready for validation. The second phase might not occur for several hours after a workunit has finished processing. This delay is because the software tries to minimize the number of scheduler communications that are made in order to minimize the load on the World Community Grid servers. By delaying the request, the software may be able to combine two communications into one.

If you have a ‘always on connection’ or if your machine is configured to automatically dial-up when an internet connection is needed, then the software will perform all of these activities automatically without any member intervention required.

Why is Phase 2 of the Clean Energy Project an opt-in project?

These calculations require work units that may run longer, have higher memory, disk space and data transfer requirements. Therefore, we are providing the users the option to opt-in to the project.

In addition, The Clean Energy Project is the first World Community Grid project to use an external server. That is, your result data is directly uploaded to the Harvard research server. Security checks are in place to make certain that uploaded data is transferred correctly and validated by the Harvard research server that is receiving the data. World Community Grid controls which servers the data is sent to and the Harvard servers will not send data files to the member machines.

Therefore, if you're interested in advancing the science of solar cells, please help us out in this great effort!

Why do some validated work units remain on my results status page for a long period of time?

When different work units share input files, then they are deleted in a different way than normal work units. All the work units that share the common input are left in the database until all work units that share the input files have completed successfully. Sometimes there will be a few work units in that group that error out and we need to discuss with the researchers how they want them handled. In those cases, the work units will not be cleared from the database until we have agreement with the researchers about how to proceed. This can cause some work units to stay in the database for a very long time.

Why are my results marked 'too late' or 'server aborted'?

The BOINC software allows us to set limits for each work unit. Below are some examples, but please note that the numbers used below are just examples and not actual:

1. Max number of results (example 9)
2. Max number of error results ( example 5)
3. Max number of success results (example 5)

So, in this example, if you download a work unit that already has 4 work units returned with an error status, and the work unit requires a quorum of 2, this would indicate that another member has a work unit in progress when you downloaded the work unit. This at a minimum would mean 6 total work units have been sent. Then your wingman returns a result that is also an error. This would cause the server to try and abort all remaining work units in progress and if your work unit had not started running, you would receive a 'server aborted' message. If your device had started on the work unit before the server abort message was sent, the BOINC software cannot abort and your device will complete the work unit, but the result will be marked as 'too late'.

Please note: number of max successes means that the results are not validating against each other. For example all 5 copies have different results.