Aiding scientists through the World Community Grid of shared computing power parallels pioneering DreamLab work.
Vodafone Group is the UK’s top contributor to the World Community Grid, a global network of donated computing power that aids scientists in tackling the world’s most pressing problems – including COVID-19.
Vodafone Group has so far donated the equivalent of 75 years worth of spare processing time from its own internal computing systems. Scripps Research is using that spare processing power to search for new treatments for COVID-19.
This effort parallels and complements Vodafone’s DreamLab smartphone app. By using DreamLab on their phones every night, members of the public can join thousands of others in pooling their smartphones’ processing power to search for new ways to treat patients suffering from COVID-19. As part of this Corona-AI project, 140,000 smartphones crunch 1.3m calculations every night.
The first phase of the Coroana-AI is very close to completion.
The distributed computing power of the DreamLab app is also being used to search for new cancer treatments, an effort that has already led to discoveries about the potential benefits of specific food molecules and the role played by diet.
Cloud benefits
As Vodafone Group increasingly moves more of its internal computing needs to the cloud, more spare computing power from otherwise idle computers will become available for use for such scientific research projects through the World Community Grid.
By repurposing computers in this way, this not only reduces electronic waste but supports organisations and activities seeking to improve all our lives.
Projects mapping rainfall in African countries and searching for new HIV/AIDS treatments are just some of the other beneficiaries of this spare computing power.
- For more about Vodafone’s contribution to the World Community Grid, click here.
- For the latest updates, follow @VodafoneUKNews on Twitter.
