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.

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Planned Server Maintenance
Hi Everyone,

The MilkyWay@home server will be shut down at noon tomorrow (6/20). We plan on bringing it back online shortly after. If there are any problems, we will post to our social media accounts.

Thank you for your support!

Tom
19 Jun 2019, 14:40:19 UTC · Discuss

NewER runs for Milkyway_nbody
Hey all,

Sorry, there was a problem with the newest runs for nbody. I've taken them down and replaced them with these runs:
-de_nbody_06_06_2019_v176_40k__sim__1
-de_nbody_06_06_2019_v176_40k__sim__2
-de_nbody_06_06_2019_v176_40k__sim__3

I apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you once again for your support.
-Eric
6 Jun 2019, 16:30:15 UTC · Discuss

New runs for Milkyway_nbody
Hello all,

Just wanted to let you know that a new batch of runs for milkyway_nbody were just put on the server. The names of the runs are as follows:
-de_nbody_06_05_2019_v176_40k__sim__1
-de_nbody_06_05_2019_v176_40k__sim__2
-de_nbody_06_05_2019_v176_40k__sim__3

If you have any issues or questions about these runs, please let me know. Thank you all for your support.
-Eric
5 Jun 2019, 16:40:05 UTC · Discuss

New Separation Runs
Hi everyone,

I put up some new separation runs so that we wouldn't be wasting GPU cycles while I am analysing the results from the last runs. The names of these runs are:

de_modfit_80_bundle4_4s_south4s_1
de_modfit_81_bundle4_4s_south4s_1
de_modfit_82_bundle4_4s_south4s_1
de_modfit_83_bundle4_4s_south4s_1
de_modfit_84_bundle4_4s_south4s_1
de_modfit_85_bundle4_4s_south4s_1
de_modfit_86_bundle4_4s_south4s_1

NOTE that these are very similar to the names of the previous runs, demarcated by only a "1" at the end instead of a "0". These runs have slightly different parameters, so it will be interesting to see whether or not they result in the same problems we were having at the end of the last runs.

If you have any issues with these runs please don't hesitate to post about it here. There are lots of great people on these forums who try their hardest to help solve these problems.

Thank you all for your continued support!

- Tom
31 May 2019, 17:08:29 UTC · Discuss

[RESOLVED] Problems with Receiving Email for Resetting Passwords
Hello all,

It has come to my attention that there are some people who are having trouble resetting their passwords. More specifically when requesting a link to reset their password, the email with the link to change their password never arrives in their inbox or spam. At the moment, I have been able to reproduce this problem with gmail accounts and some temporary email accounts. So far, I've only been able to get my university email account to receive a password reset link. While I will continue to troubleshoot this issue, I humbly request help in this matter. If you could request a password change and tell me whether or not you receive an email with the password reset link, as well as what email type you are using (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, edu, etc.), it will help me immensely with identifying the root of this problem. I am not asking for you to change your password; I only need to know if the email arrives.
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.

-Eric Mendelsohn
22 May 2019, 16:49:33 UTC · Discuss

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