Choosing BOINC projects
BOINC is used by many volunteer computing projects. Some are based at universities and research labs, others are run by private groups or individuals. You can participate in any number of these projects.
In deciding whether to participate in a project, read its web site and consider the following questions:
- Does the project clearly describe its goals? Are these goals important and beneficial?
- Has the project published results in peer-reviewed journals or conferences? See A list of scientific publications of BOINC projects.
- Do you trust the project to use proper security practices?
- Who owns the results of the computation? Will they be freely available? Will they belong to a company?
The following projects are known to us at BOINC, and we believe that their descriptions are accurate.
Projects have different requirements such as memory size; a partial summary is here.
If your computer is equipped with a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), you may be able to use it to compute faster.
| Name Mouse over for details; click to visit web site | Category | Area | Sponsor | Supported platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acoustics@home | Physical Science | Physics, Underwater acoustics | V.I. Ilichev Pacific Oceanological Institute, Far Eastern Federal University, Matrosov Institute for System Dynamics and Control Theory, A.A. Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Dorodnicyn Computing Centre |   Details |
| Amicable Numbers | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Independent |    Details |
| Asteroids@home | Physical Science | Astrophysics | Charles University in Prague |    Details |
| BOINC test | Distributed sensing | Testing | UC Berkeley | Details |
| CAS@home | Multiple applications | Physics, biochemistry, and others | Chinese Academy of Sciences | Details |
| Citizen Science Grid | Multiple applications | Molecular biology, Computer Science | University of North Dakota | Details |
| Climateprediction.net | Earth Sciences | Climate study | Oxford University | Details |
| Collatz Conjecture | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Independent |  Details |
| Cosmology@Home | Physical Science | Astronomy | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |  Details |
| Einstein@home | Physical Science | Astrophysics | University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (USA), Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics - Hanover (Germany) | Details |
| Enigma@Home | Mathematics, computing, and games | Cryptography | Independent | Details |
| Gerasim@Home | Mathematics, computing, and games | Computer engineering | Southwest State University (Russia) | Details |
| GPUGrid.net | Biology and Medicine | Molecular simulations of proteins | Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) | Details |
| Leiden Classical | Physical Science | Chemistry | Leiden University, The Netherlands | Details |
| LHC@home | Physical Science | Physics | CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) | Details |
| Milkyway@home | Physical Science | Astronomy | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Details |
| MindModeling@Home | Cognitive science and artificial intelligence | Cognitive Science | University of Dayton and Wright State University | Details |
| Moo! Wrapper | Mathematics, computing, and games | Cryptography and combinatorics | Independent | Details |
| NFS@home | Mathematics, computing, and games | Factorization of large integers | California State University Fullerton | Details |
| NumberFields@home | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Arizona State University, school of Mathematics | Details |
| ODLK | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Independent | Details |
| ODLK1 | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Independent | Details |
| primaboinca | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Hochschule RheinMain University of Applied Sciences | Details |
| PrimeGrid | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Independent | Details |
| Quake Catcher Network | Distributed sensing | Seismology | University of Southern California | Details |
| Radioactive@Home | Distributed sensing | Environmental research | BOINC Poland Foundation | Details |
| RNA World | Biology and Medicine | Molecular biology | Rechenkraft.net e.V. | Details |
| Rosetta@home | Biology and Medicine | Biology | University of Washington | Details |
| SAT@home | Mathematics, computing, and games | Computer Science | Institute for System Dynamics and Control Theory and Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Science | Details |
| SETI@home | Physical Science | Astrophysics, astrobiology | University of California, Berkeley | Details |
| SourceFinder | Physical Science | Astronomy | The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (Perth, Australia) | Details |
| SRBase | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | Independent | Details |
| SZTAKI Desktop Grid | Mathematics, computing, and games | Mathematics | MTA-SZTAKI Laboratory of Parallel and Distributed Systems (Hungary) | Details |
| theSkyNet POGS | Physical Science | Astronomy | The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (Perth, Australia) | Details |
| Universe@Home | Physical Science | Astronomy | University of Warsaw | Details |
| World Community Grid | Multiple applications | Medical, environmental and other humanitarian research | IBM Corporate Citizenship | Details |
| Yoyo@home | Multiple applications | Mathematics, physics, evolution | Independent | Details |
If you run a BOINC-based project and would like it to be included on this list, please contact us.
Copyright © 2018 University of California. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.