SETI@homeand Citizen Cyber-Science

David P. Anderson

Space Sciences LaboratoryU.C. Berkeley

Citizen Cyber-Science

The use of Internet and computer technology to involve the public in scientific research

Volunteer computing Volunteer thinking

Stardust@home, GalaxyZoo, FoldIt!

SETI@home Classic

Volunteer PC SETI@home serverInternet

SETI@homeclient

download,install

SETI@home Classic

Volunteer PC SETI@home serverInternet

SETI@homeclient

serverrequest a job

SETI@home Classic

Volunteer PC SETI@home serverInternet

SETI@homeclient

serversend data

database

get job

SETI@home Classic

Volunteer PC SETI@home serverInternet

SETI@homeclient

(process data)

SETI@home Classic

Volunteer PC SETI@home serverInternet

server

return results,request new job

database

store resultsget jobSETI@home

client

Problems with S@h Classic

• Hard to deploy new applications or versions

• Wasteful replication

– “Always have work” policy

• No result validation

• Monolithic, inflexible server

Problems with S@h Classic

• Client only downloads 1 job at a time

• Client uses only 1 CPU

• Unit of credit is “job”

• Hard to participate in >1 project (e.g. Folding@home and SETI@home)

BOINC

• General-purpose “middleware” for volunteer computing

• Funded by NSF, 2002 - present

• Open-source (LGPL)

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client download,install

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client

“attach” to project

SETI@home server

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client

request jobs type of computer RAM, CPU speed connection interval

SETI@home server

scheduler

BOINCDB

get jobs

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client

job descriptions list of application files list of input files list of output files

SETI@home server

scheduler

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client

download program,input files

SETI@home server

data servers

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client

SETI@home server

programprogram

(run applications)

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client

upload outputfiles

SETI@home server

data servers

SETI@home/BOINC

Volunteer PCInternet

BOINC client

report completed jobs

SETI@home server

scheduler

BOINCDB

ScienceDB

assimilate

validate

Problems solved

• Easy to deploy new apps

• Efficient replication

– 2-fold, adaptive

• Errors, cheating are detected immediately

• Server is scalable, fail-soft

• Credit is based on FLOPS, not jobs

• Client can queue lots of jobs, use >1 CPU

Painful transition to BOINC (2005)

• Awkward registration process

• “techie” GUI

• Classic credit didn’t carry over

• User base: 500K -> 200K

The volunteer computing ecosystem

projects

CPDN

LHC@home

WCGattachments

volunteers

Climateprediction.net

Einstein@home

• Gravitational waves

Other projects

• LHC@home

• Rosetta@home

• IBM World Community Grid

• Etc.

– epidemiology, plant ecology, genetic linkage, phylogenetics, graph theory, number theory, cognitive modeling, fluid dynamics, galactic structure, quantum chemistry, nanotechnology, quantum computing, cosmology

History of volunteer computing

Applications

Middleware

1995 2005distributed.net, GIMPS

SETI@home, Folding@home

Commercial: Entropia, United Devices, ...

BOINC

Climateprediction.netPredictor@homeIBM World Community GridEinstein@homeRosetta@home ...

20052000 now

Academic: Bayanihan, Javelin, ...

Applications

Performance

• Current

– 500K people, 1M computers

– 6.5 PetaFLOPS (3 from GPUs, 1.4 from PS3s)

• Potential

– 1 billion PCs today, 2 billion in 2015

– GPU: approaching 1 TFLOPS

– 1 ExaFLOPS: 4M GPUs * 0.25 availability

– Freescale i.MX51: 2 GFLOPS, 200mw

Organizational models

Umbrella projects

• Institutional

– Lattice, VTU@home

• Corporate

– IBM World Community Grid

• Community

– AlmereGrid

• Research community

– MindModeling.org

Project

publicityweb developmentsysadmin

Stardust@home

• The Stardust mission

• Where’s the dust?

• Stardust@home

– 23K volunteers

– 43M viewings

– 64 tracks found

jobs

middleware

people orcomputers

identityaccounting

queuingassignmentvalidation

What’s different?

• People vary

• Jobs may not be well-defined

aptitudetraining

Bossa

• Open-source PHP-based middleware for volunteer thinking

– http://bossa.berkeley.edu

• Policies

– replication, volunteer assessment, job assignment

– Bossa doesn’t provide policies, but makes it easy to implement a wide range of policies

Projects in development

• Hominids@home

– Collect photos of Middle Awash (Ethiopia)

– Look for hominid and other fossils

• AfricaMap

Conclusion

• Citizen Cyber-Science

– volunteer computing

– volunteer thinking

• Benefits to science

• Benefits to society