Coronavirus COVID-19 Projects

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*Note: This is a work in progress and subject to frequent revision.

Here's a list of projects you can crunch that are involved in research related to the current #coronavirus #COVID19 infection. I'll try to keep this updated. We are actively crunching all BOINC projects (don't forget to join the team if you are new!) plus Folding@Home! :USA:

This is a list of BOINC projects, except for Folding@Home which uses a similar framework.

Project#COVID19 FocusApp
Rosetta@HomeDirect, but multiple projects are ongoing and you cannot exclusively select it.CPU
Folding@HomeDirect. You can select #COVID19 work if you're using client version 7.6.9. If no work is available you will get work from another project.
Our team ID = 236370.		*CPU / GPU (Nvidia and AMD are supported)
TN-GridIndirect.CPU (AVX apps are available, keep an eye on your CPU temps)
GPUGridComing soon!

Work is complete and project is out of work for now. Stay tuned!		Nvidia GPU only
Ralph@HomeThis is a beta test project for Rosetta@Home. There are specific COVID-19 work units: "This version contains updated protocols for protein interface design necessary for COVID-19 research among many additional updates and protocols added to Rosetta since the last update. " As with other projects you cannot exclusively select it, and work probably won't be continuous.CPU (Android apps are available but may not be COVID-19 related)
BOINC@TACCDirect, but multiple projects are ongoing and you cannot exclusively select it. Work is intermittent.CPU. Requires VirtualBox, a 64-bit operating system and a CPU supporting VT-x (Intel) or AMD-V (AMD) instruction set.
The project’s primary goal is to search for potential treatments for COVID-19, so studying proteins from SARS-CoV2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is the highest priority.

Additionally, scientists want to fight not only the current emergency, but also prepare for the ones that will likely follow. Future pandemics could stem from a progressive accumulation of mutations, which can eventually lead to a new virus variant. This is what happened when the virus SARS-CoV1 mutated to become SARS-CoV2. So, the research team is including proteins from the SARS-CoV1 and other viruses to be studied as part of OpenPandemics –COVID-19, which will help them assess how difficult would it be to find or design molecules capable of overcoming the inevitable mutations."

This project is now live!! Join our World Community Grid team here and don't forget to opt-in for your stats to count.		CPU. Windows, Linux or Mac only.
IbercivisThe project description is in Spanish, but right now I believe they're exclusively running #COVID19 research.
This is an old project that has been restarted. If you had an account before, you'll have to register again. If you had a client attached before, detach before registering or you'll have two accounts in your manager.		CPU, Windows and Linux.

Here are some projects you can participate in that don't require BOINC.

Project#COVID19 FocusApp
Foldit! (hat tip to @TheBoinc)Foldit is a revolutionary crowdsourcing computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research. This page describes the science behind Foldit and how your playing can help.Windows, MacOS, Linux
eterna (hat tip to @TheBoinc)Eterna empowers citizen scientists to invent medicine through molecular design.You play by solving puzzles using RNAs, tiny molecules at the heart of every cell.Web browser
Vodafone Foundation DreamLabImagine if we could speed up time in the fight against cancer.
***Temporarily, DreamLab is being used to support research to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19).***		Android or iOS, download from your phone's app store
https://quarantine.infino.me/This software performs drug-docking experiments against coronavirus proteins. We're currently targeting the spike protein to prevent cellular attachment, and the mpro protease.Windows, Mac (currently in Alpha), Linux (Docker). CPU and Nvidia GPU.

*3/19/2020: At this time Folding@Home work is very difficult to get because so many machines have attached. Work creation, assignment and uploads are all severely impacted, the servers are overwhelmed.
*3/29/2020: Work seems to have stabilized somewhat, I'm getting work more consistently the last couple days although not continuously.
4/25-20: GPU work continues to be intermittent, adequate some days and others almost impossible to get.
5/17/20: F@H GPU work is fairly consistent and available.
 
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Just got a whack of TACC jobs, multi-threaded VB work. If you're running these make sure you have Virtualization enabled in your BIOS / UEFI.
 
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doneske

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Last time I ran TACC jobs they required about 8GB memory and were set to use 4 cores. They usually ran about 5 minutes each. Are they still the same? I believe their problem with lack of jobs was due to the restrictive nature of their BOINC requirements. Not very many researchers had jobs that would fit in the requirements.
 
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They're still using 4 cores and I think run time is about the same, they run a bit longer on my system. Memory is around 120-130 megs from what I can tell, BUT there was batch of bad jobs with corrupt or missing files and I'm working through those now. REAL work should probably take more. I don't feel like looking through client_state right now but BOINCTasks shows 3.1 gigs allocated, so I expect that's the real use or at least what BOINC expects it to be.

There are reports of problems with VirtualBox 6.1.4 on Linux. It's working fine on Windoze 10.
 
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BOINC@TACC work seems to be mostly faulty. I had a few tasks that ran almost 2 hours, showed no sign of CPU activity but still validated. I had a bunch that ran less than 2 minutes, pretty sure nothing of value was achieved but they also validated. The admin seems happy though so maybe it's working as it should after all.
 
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doneske

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USA team member
BOINC@TACC is an interesting project. My impression is there are only 2 people supporting the BOINC infrastructure and they aren't very knowledgeable about BOINC. For some reason they think 1000 or maybe even 5000 jobs is a lot when in reality that is a BOINC test site. I stll say their BOINC requirements are too low based on what I read in there researcher's guide. I'n having a difficult time understanding why one would want to run that small of a job in VirtualBox. The overhead of VB drowns out the actual work.
 
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I'm working through another batch now and these are mostly running 15-20 minutes, using 4 threads which seems more reasonable. This seems like an interesting project with a lot of potential, but I hope in the future we can get the stats exported.
 
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doneske

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I wouldn't put too much hope into that, at least anywhere in the near term. They seem like they are clueless with even some of the simplest BOINC server options but I guess that's true with some other projects also...
 
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doneske said:
I wouldn't put too much hope into that, at least anywhere in the near term. They seem like they are clueless with even some of the simplest BOINC server options but I guess that's true with some other projects also...
Click to expand...
I think it's been about a year since it was first asked about, so yeah my expectations are pretty low. :LOL:
 
Jason Jung

Jason Jung

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5,172 beta work units were returned yesterday. The day before was 1,077 and the next highest day was 308. Average completion time looks to be around 1.67 hours. For comparison: Africa Rainfall Project sends out 5,000 work units per day averaging a full day to complete.
 
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Ibercivis is back from the dead with #COVID19 work. I've updated the list. As mentioned in the table, they've started the project from scratch so all the old accounts are gone. You'll need to register again if you had an account before, and you better detach beforehand or you'll have two accounts showing in the manager. :LOL: I've created the team, I don't know what will happen with that if they enable BOINC-Wide teams in the future.

[Edit] I should that in my opinion as this project was idle for so long, it should be considered a Beta project. [\Edit]
 
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doneske

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WCG OPN1 betas haven't been sized so their runtimes vary quite a bit. I guess one could say we are beta testing the betas. They are also testing Android and Linux on ARM work units. Hoping next week to get a group of betas that will look like the production work. They did a massive DB upgrade last week to increase storage and RAM for the DB in anticipation of a massive (3x) increase in participation.
 
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doneske said:
WCG OPN1 betas haven't been sized so their runtimes vary quite a bit. I guess one could say we are beta testing the betas. They are also testing Android and Linux on ARM work units. Hoping next week to get a group of betas that will look like the production work. They did a massive DB upgrade last week to increase storage and RAM for the DB in anticipation of a massive (3x) increase in participation.
Click to expand...
Nice to see they're planning ahead, hopefully they don't crash and burn like F@H by an influx of new participants. Interesting about Android, I thought they said that wasn't going to be an option. Hopefully it works, I know there's a lot of Android interest.
 
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doneske

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I got 3 of the Android betas but because they haven't been sized, I have one that is still running after 48 hours. Uplinger indicated that the Android and Arm work won't stop the launch if there are problems. I've been pretty vocal about their rollouts and capacity issues in the past. I was an IBM large systems customer for over 40 years. I've been to all their development labs in Tucson (storage), Austin (Power systems), Poughkeepsie (Mainframe), Toronto (DB2) and IBM is better than that. My son works for IBM now and he would never be able to get away with that type of planning. I'm still worried about their backend storage capacity to hold results when they come back. That has been the issue in the past. I guess it gets to me because I know they have the technology to prevent those problems and they don't use it....
 
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A new effort, Quarantine@Home is underway. This uses the Autodock software which I think is also used in some WCG projects. It runs on Windows, Mac (currently Alpha) and Linux (Docker). CPU and Nvidia GPU are supported. It's not a BOINC project even though it's using the BOINC-style naming.
 
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doneske

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Looks like Open Pandemics on WCG will be offering a GPU option in the future. That means I may have to finally build a GPU centric platform and try it out. I'm Linux only so this should be interesting. Will probably go with a Ryzen 9 processor and board but haven't decided on a GPU card and OS yet.
 
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