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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News

New Runs for MilkyWay@home Nbody Simulations (07/07/2020)
Hey all,

The last set of N-body runs we set up started converging to compact progenitors due to an overly restrictive data histogram. We have fixed the data histogram and placed new runs up on the server:
-de_nbody_07_07_2020_v176_40k__data__1
-de_nbody_07_07_2020_v176_40k__data__2
-de_nbody_07_07_2020_v176_40k__data__3

Please let us know if these runs cause any problems, and thank you all for your support.

-Eric
7 Jul 2020, 19:42:53 UTC · Discuss

New Separation Runs 6/19/2020
Hello Everyone,

I have put up the following separation runs:

de_modfit_80_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_3
de_modfit_81_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_3
de_modfit_82_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_3
de_modfit_83_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_3
de_modfit_84_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_3
de_modfit_85_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_3
de_modfit_86_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_3

And I have taken down the following separation runs:

de_modfit_80_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_2
de_modfit_81_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_2
de_modfit_82_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_2
de_modfit_83_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_2
de_modfit_86_bundle4_4s_south4s_bgset_2
de_modfit_14_bundle5_testing_4s3f_1
de_modfit_14_bundle5_testing_4s3f_2
de_modfit_14_bundle5_testing_4s3f_3
de_modfit_14_bundle5_testing_3s4f_1
de_modfit_14_bundle5_testing_3s4f_2
de_modfit_14_bundle5_testing_3s4f_3

The new runs are copies of the previous bgset_2 runs, in order to verify our results. Since the stripe 84 and 85 runs in the last set went a bit wonky after a couple weeks, I expect the same to happen here. I will keep a close watch on these forums, and when people begin to report errors from the runs on those stripes, I will promptly take them down. The errors that people are reporting on the bgset_2 runs should stop in the next couple days as the old runs all finish trickling in.

All of the testing runs have come down (there may be more in the future).

Thank you all for your continued support with this project. Stay safe (and sane) in these strange times.

Best,
Tom
29 Jun 2020, 20:09:25 UTC · Discuss

New Runs for MilkyWay@home Nbody Simulations (06/08/2020)
Hey everyone,

We realized that the comparison histogram in the last set of runs contained incorrect data. As such we have replaced the last set of runs on 05/30/2020 with the following runs in their place:
-de_nbody_06_08_2020_v176_40k__data__1
-de_nbody_06_08_2020_v176_40k__data__2
-de_nbody_06_08_2020_v176_40k__data__3

We apologize for any inconvenience,

-Eric
8 Jun 2020, 20:26:26 UTC · Discuss

New Runs for MilkyWay@home N-Body (5/30/2020)
Hey everyone,

We are really close to releasing a new version of NBody. Hopefully, after the next two sets of optimizations, we'll have all the bugs in the newer version fixed. So for the time being, here are the new runs:
-de_nbody_05_30_2020_v176_40k__data__1
-de_nbody_05_30_2020_v176_40k__data__2
-de_nbody_05_30_2020_v176_40k__data__3

Thank you all for your continued support,

-Eric
30 May 2020, 20:59:06 UTC · Discuss

New Runs for MilkyWay@home N-Body (3/20/2020)
Hello,

I am writing to let you all know that we have just put some new runs up:
-de_nbody_03_20_2020_v176_40k__sim__1
-de_nbody_03_20_2020_v176_40k__sim__2
-de_nbody_03_20_2020_v176_40k__sim__3

Thank you all for your support,

-Eric
20 Mar 2020, 16:59:53 UTC · Discuss

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