IBM has announced it will provide scientists studying climate change-related issues with free access to dedicated virtual supercomputing and a platform to engage the public in their research. This comes in support of the updated Climate Data Initiative announced by the White House today.
Each approved project will have access to up to 100,000 years of computing time at a value of $60 million, IBM says. The work will be performed on IBM's philanthropic World Community Grid platform.
Created and managed by IBM, World Community Grid provides computing power to researchers by harnessing the unused cycle time of volunteers' computers and mobile devices. Participants get involved by downloading software that runs when they take breaks or work on lightweight computer tasks, such as browsing the Internet. The software receives, completes, and returns small computational assignments to the researchers. The combined power contributed by hundreds of thousands of volunteers has created one of the fastest virtual supercomputers on the planet, advancing scientific work by hundreds of years.
Through the contributions of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, World Community Grid already has provided sustainability researchers with several millions of dollars of computing power to date, enabling important advances in scientific inquiry and understanding.
For instance, Harvard University's Clean Energy Project has identified more than 35,000 materials with the potential to double carbon-based solar cell efficiency, after screening and publicly cataloguing more than two million compounds on World Community Grid. This is believed to be the world's most extensive quantum chemical investigation to date. Until now, carbon-based solar cells were made from a handful of molecules that were painstakingly discovered one by one. With Harvard's work, there's thousands more to explore.
Likewise, World Community Grid's partnership with the University of Washington on Nutritious Rice for the World modeled rice proteins and predicted their function to help farmers breed new strains with higher yields and greater disease and pest resistance, potentially providing new options for regions facing changing climate conditions.
World Community Grid is particularly useful to researchers who lack the funds or dedicated access to powerful supercomputers that can accelerate their simulations and virtual experiments. It has been used to facilitate research into clean energy, clean water and healthy foodstuffs, as well as cures for cancer, AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Nearly three-million computers and mobile devices used by over 670,000 people and 460 institutions from 80 countries have contributed power for projects on World Community Grid over the last nine years. Since the program's inception, World Community Grid volunteers have over 20 research projects, donating nearly a million years of computing time to scientific research and enabled scientific advances in health and sustainability.
In other recent IBM news, the company earlier this month announced a 10-year initiative to support China in transforming its national energy systems and protecting the health of citizens. Dubbed “Green Horizon,” the project sets out to leap beyond current global practices in three areas critical to China’s sustainable growth: air quality management, renewable energy forecasting and energy optimization for industry.
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Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Jul 29, 2014 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST