What is MilkyWay@home?
Milkyway@Home uses the BOINC platform to harness volunteered computing resources, creating a highly accurate three dimensional model of the Milky Way galaxy using data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This project enables research in both astroinformatics and computer science.
In computer science, the project is investigating different optimization methods which are resilient to the fault-prone, heterogeneous and asynchronous nature of Internet computing; such as evolutionary and genetic algorithms, as well as asynchronous newton methods. While in astroinformatics, Milkyway@Home is generating highly accurate three dimensional models of the Sagittarius stream, which provides knowledge about how the Milky Way galaxy was formed and how tidal tails are created when galaxies merge.
Milkyway@Home is a joint effort between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's departments of Computer Science and Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy. Feel free to contact us via our forums, or email astro[at]cs.lists.rpi[dot]edu.
Read more on our Science Page, or check out our YouTube Channel!
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Social Media
People
Milkyway@Home is currently run by:- Travis Desell, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of North Dakota
- Heidi Newberg, Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
- Malik Magdon-Ismail, Professor of Computer Science
- Carlos Varela, Associate Professor of Computer Science
- Boleslaw Szymanski, Claire and Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor of Computer Science
- Jake Weiss, Postdoctoral Researcher in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
- Eric Mendelsohn, Graduate Research Assistant in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
- Blurf, Volunteer Forum Moderator
- Siddhartha Shelton, PhD Physics
- Matthew Newby, Adjunct Faculty in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
- Jeffery Thompson, Graduate Research Assistant in Physics, Apllied Physics, and Astronomy
- Matt Arsenault, Graduate Research Assistant in Physics
- Benjamin Willet, Postdoctoral Researcher in Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy
- Nathan Cole, Graduate Research Assistant in Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy
- Maia Marchetti, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
- Adam Susser, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
- Jake Bauer, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
- Steve Ulins, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Physics
- Colin Rice, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Physics
- Shane Reilly, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Computer Science
- Joe Doran, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Computer Science
- Brian Chitester, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Computer Science
- Dave Przybylo, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Computer Science
- John Vickers, Undergraduate Research Assistant in Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy
- Anthony Waters, Graduate Research Assistant in Computer Science
- Clayton Rayment, Graduate Research Assistant in Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
Funding
Milkway@home is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendtions expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
Individual grants are listed on the information page.
User of the Day
daveg
News
New Separation Runs
Hey everyone,
There was a problem with the previous separation runs that was causing some command lines to overflow. I have changed the bundle size of the new runs, so that shouldn't be a problem anymore. The previous runs have been taken down.
The names of the new runs are:
de_modfit_80_bundle4_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_81_bundle4_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_82_bundle4_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_83_bundle4_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_84_bundle4_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_85_bundle4_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_86_bundle4_4s_south4s_0
These new workunits will crunch a little faster than the previous versions, and credits are assigned accordingly.
Thank you all for your patience during this transition period!
Tom
16 Apr 2019, 17:58:10 UTC
· Discuss
New Separation Runs
Hey all,
I just put up new separation runs on the server. The names of these runs are:
de_modfit_80_bundle5_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_81_bundle5_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_82_bundle5_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_83_bundle5_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_84_bundle5_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_85_bundle5_4s_south4s_0
de_modfit_86_bundle5_4s_south4s_0
If you have any issues with these specific runs, please post about them here. I will do my best to help you in any way I can.
Thank you for your continued support,
Tom
12 Apr 2019, 17:16:12 UTC
· Discuss
New MilkyWay@home Scientist
Hey Everyone!
My name is Tom Donlon. I have worked with Prof. Newberg for several years now on a variety of topics involving n-body simulations and the origin of galactic substructure. I will be transitioning to working as a graduate student and will be working on a project involving the separation application for my thesis. As such I will be providing support for this application and learning how to maintain the server from Jake. Please be gentle during my transition.
Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to getting to know all of you.
Best,
Tom
10 Apr 2019, 18:06:14 UTC
· Discuss
30 Workunit Limit Per Request - Fix Implemented
Hey Everyone,
Some users were only able to request 30 workunits at a time max. This is far too low to ensure optimal GPU usage. We have increased the feeder's shared memory size to hopefully increase the number of workunits available to request at any given time. Please let me know here if this has helped the issue.
Best,
Jake
27 Mar 2019, 20:43:25 UTC
· Discuss
BOINC Stats Issue - Fix Implemented
Hey Everyone,
I implemented a fix to the BOINC stats exporting. This can take up to 24 hours to propagate through so I'll check on it tomorrow.
Best,
Jake
26 Mar 2019, 18:16:10 UTC
· Discuss
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