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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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

With Ongoing Support from:

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

With previous support from:

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

Volkovy

i'm a sociologist who loves girls, rally racing and overclocking computers running BOINC 64bit on i7 920@4000 and HD6970

News

Proper Credit Rewarded for New Workunits
Hey Everyone,

New workunits should properly award 227.157 credits instead of 133.622 credits. You may still see a few award 133.622 credits for a little while, but these workunits will filter out over time until eventually all reward the correct 227.157 credits.

Best,

Jake
21 Mar 2019, 18:09:27 UTC · Discuss

Workunit Credit Issues - Fix Implemented
Hey Everyone,

I have implemented a fix for workunits not assigning credit. Hopefully all newly validated workunits will award credit properly. If you notice anywhere that this is not the case, please let me know.

As for the previously validated workunits which assigned zero credit, I am not sure there is a good way for me to assign credit for them. This would probably require me writing a script to actually alter your credit values based on the number of unrewarded returned results. I am pretty uncomfortable altering credit like this. Please use this thread to discuss and offer your input on this problem.

Thank you all for your patience.

Best,
Jake
20 Mar 2019, 17:46:50 UTC · Discuss

New Server Update
Hey Everyone,

We are switched over to the new server. I am still working on a few kinks related to serving workunits, but the website seems mostly stable. I have only found one or two broken pages which I will work on fixing as the week progresses. My priority for the rest of today is getting workunits served.

Thanks for your patience.

Jake
19 Mar 2019, 19:45:55 UTC · Discuss

Temporarily Suspending New Account Creation
Hey Everyone,

I am going to begin migrating accounts over to the new server. In order to do that, I am suspending new account creation until the new server is put up.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Best,

Jake
18 Mar 2019, 14:40:48 UTC · Discuss

New Workunit Generation Pause
Hey Everyone,

In preparation for the migration to the new server, we will be pausing the generation of new workunits today. This does not mean that we will stop sending out workunits. Instead, it means that the only workunits being sent out will be those needing cross validation. Hopefully, this will allow us to clear the workunit validation queue by Tuesday morning and simplify our transition process.

This may also mean that at somepoint this weekend or on Monday, there will be very few workunits left on the server to process. This is expected.

Best,

Jake
15 Mar 2019, 17:32:56 UTC · Discuss

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