ExSciTecH: Expanding Volunteer Computing to Explore Science, Technology, and Health.

ExSciTecH: Expanding Volunteer Computingto Explore Science, Technology, and Health M. Matheny1, S. Schlachter1, L.M. Crouse2, E.T. Kimmel2, T. Estrada1, M. Schumann3, R. Armen3, G. ZoppeB2, and M. Taufer1 1University of Delaware 2University of Millersville 3Thomas Jeﬀerson University

Volunteer Computing •  Volunteer Computing (VC) is a form of distributed computing in which volunteers donate processing and storage resources to computing projects. •  Every job represents a portion of a larger problem whose computation is divided into smaller chunks and addressed in parallel. •  Applications suited for VC include searches in very large spaces, parameter tuning, and data analysis. 1

Volunteers•  Are not representative of the general population •  White males with a background in computers•  Paradigm causes them to be passive•  Lose interest in the project and uninstall the VC software within a few months of participation 2

Main Contribution•  Problem: Volunteer Computing appeals to a very narrow demographic –  We want to utilize intuitive technologies and user interfaces to appeal to historic minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)•  Problem: In VC participants are generally passive and not involved in the research process –  We want to get volunteers to help solve important research problems and make scientiﬁc discovery 3

Outline •  Background•  Motivation and Plan•  Implementation•  Game Testing•  Conclusion and Future Work 4

Outline •  Background•  Motivation and Plan•  Implementation•  Testing•  Conclusion and Future Work 5

Docking@Home •  Docking@Home is powered by Berkley Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) 6

D@H Scientiﬁc Goals •  Self-Docking –  Searching for protein inhibitors –  Targeted diseases •  HIV •  Breast cancer (trypsin)•  Cross-Docking –  Identifying drug side effects –  Look at proteins similar to the disease protein –  Naïve approach: all to all •  All proteins •  All ligands –  This is where we want to utilize volunteers to reduce search space 7

Related Work •  Fold.it –  Developed by the same team as Rosetta@Home –  Aims to use volunteers to fold proteins through puzzles –  Complements VC system, does not integrate with VC system•  Bossa –  Developed by the BOINC team –  Volunteers use cognition, knowledge, and intelligence to solve problems•  Luis von Ahn’s work –  Phetch – improving web accessibility –  Games with a purpose (GWAP) –  reCAPTCHA 8

Docking@Home: As it stands 10

ExSciTecH: Learning Stage 11

ExSciTecH: Engaging Stage 12

ExSciTecH: Engaging Stage 13

ExSciTecH: the full circle 14

BOINC Infrastructure C L I E N T" S E R V E R" Download" Upload" BOINC" CGI BOINC Client" BOINC" Daemons" DB"Local File System" Back-end! Client! Front-end! BOINC" Web Browser" BOINC! Web Interface! 16

BOINC + ExSciTecH C L I E N T" S E R V E R" Download" Upload" BOINC" CGI BOINC Client" BOINC" Daemons" DB"Local File Learn" CGI System" Game" Learn" VMD" ExSciTecH" Game DB" Daemons" Engage CGI Game" Engage" Back-end! Client! Front-end! Player! Player" Teacher" BOINC" Web Teacher! Browser" BOINC! Web Interface! 17

ExSciTecH Client •  Modularly designed – each game is a separate program and the client acts as a manager 18

Learning Games •  Teach volunteers about science without intimidating them•  Several levels available: –  High school student –  Under graduate student –  Graduate student –  Pharmaceutical student –  Professional chemist•  As players progress through the levels the game becomes more challenging•  Familiarize volunteers with the science•  Give D@H more exposure –  Students in classrooms 19

Molecule Flashcards •  Players must identify or categorize a 3D molecule as it ﬂies towards them•  If the player incorrectly identiﬁes the molecule they’re given access to additional information about it 20

Engaging Games •  Volunteers have been trained by the learning stage•  Building a job –  Short game –  Game objects correlate to job input parameters •  Protein (disease) •  Ligand (drug) •  Ligand Conﬁrmation •  Ligand Rotation•  Submitting a job –  Game submits these parameters to the server –  Server builds a job based on these parameters•  Getting results –  Good results  More games! –  Volunteering CPU time  More games! 21

Drag’n’Dock •  Volunteers rotate a protein and select a ligand•  Then they ﬂy a spaceship over the protein with the ligand in tow•  They attempt to dock the ligand in the protein with the space ship•  The game submits data to the server to build a D@H work unit 22

Testing the Molecule Flashcard Game •  What we want to learn: –  Do people learn more with the game than they do with a paper test? –  Do they enjoy our game more than a paper test? –  What improvements can we make to the game?•  How we tested: –  We took a group of students and had half of them attempt to identify molecules with our ﬂashcard game and half of them attempt to identify molecules on a paper test•  What we measured: –  Time to complete the game/test –  Number of molecules correctly identiﬁed –  Survey with level of enjoyment and comments 26

Testing Setup•  24 computer science students •  10-minute introduction –  14 undergraduate students •  Students split into two groups –  10 graduate students –  Paper test –  Molecule ﬂashcard game Vs. 27

Results and Discussion •  Make more errors, but enjoy the game more•  Tend to be faster – less reflection 28

Results and Discussion •  Learning Curve•  Confusing 3D representations 29

Conclusions and Future Work •  We can transform the way volunteers participate in VC projects –  More accessible –  More exciting•  We show students had a higher level of enthusiasm when using ExSciTecH rather than traditional learning tools•  We identiﬁed improvements that could be made to the ﬂashcard game: –  Variable speed –  Pause –  Skip and come back•  We are moving forward with the ExSciTecH development by continuing development of engaging games 31

Acknowledgments Thanks to: GCLab group M. Matheny (UD) S. Schlachter (UD) L.M. Crouse (U. Millersville) E.T. Kimmel (U. Millersville) T. Estrada (UD) M. Schumann (TJU) R. Armen (TJU) G. ZoppeB (U. Millersville) Sponsors: Contact: taufer@udel.edu IIS #0968350/#0968368 32

ExSciTecH: Expanding Volunteer Computing to Explore Science, Technology, and Health.

by Michela Taufer on Oct 15, 2012

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