UK BOINC Team : UK Team BOINC : Team UK BOINC : BOINC UK Team : Team BOINC UK : BOINC Team UK : #1 ranked UK Team

Thank you for browsing to the UK BOINC Team website

Our current ranking positions:
UK BOINC Team is the UK's #1 ranked team for total credit, with over 200 million credits
(We were the 1st UK-specific team to reach 100 million on 17th Oct 2007!!).

UK BOINC Team is the UK's #1 ranked team for daily credits, with over 400,000 credits per day.

UK BOINC Team is the highest placed UK Team within the World Rankings, at #25

UK BOINC Team has over 1,850 members

So, maybe, just maybe you'd like to join us?
If so, then click on the "Join Our Team" link shown on the left.

What is BOINC and who exactly are the UK BOINC Team?

So, what is BOINC you ask?
BOINC is a project that allows willing participants to download a simple program, that allows computers to do work in the "background", while you are using the computer for other tasks.

Computers have now become so powerful and so cheap that most of the time, the processor inside is actually doing very little real work and hence this spare capacity can be doing "something else" very easily and without disrupting your normal use. Programmers came up with the idea to utilise this spare "horse power" in a "worldwide distributed computing grid", linked by the Internet, so as to benefit many different scientific projects.

Originally, there were only one or two projects that used the BOINC Manager program, which allowed users to download project "Work Units" which are then processed by your PC and then the results are returned to the project via the internet.

In time, other research projects have started using BOINC, which has been upgraded to allow users to join numerous projects and then adjust the "resource share" of each project, in order that you can control how much work is done for each project. You need to be connected to the 'Net to help each project and ideally you need broadband as this makes the downloading of work and the uploading of the results much quicker (otherwise you have to use a modem, which is much slower).

Once each Work Unit is downloaded, it may take between a few minutes to possibly a few months to complete (which is dependant on how much "processing power" is required to complete it as well as the "speed" of your computer).
After the work is completed, BOINC returns the result, a virtual "credit" is awarded by the project as a "reward" and a new WU is downloaded. In the case of some of the very long WU's, such as those available from BBC Climate Change and CPDN, work is uploaded automatically back to the project during the crunching period - these uploads are known as "trickles" and take place regularly. Each "trickle" generates a credit reward.

Ultimately, each project collates all the returned work and then uses it to generate results that will aid their research. In effect, each participating member of BOINC will be helping to make the significant improvements towards the medical and climate environments (amongst others), so that we can really bring about significant benefit to the world.
Never before has the "man in the street" had so much ability to help others as now.

So, who are the UK BOINC Team?
We are a collective of people who are using their home (and sometimes work) PC's to voluntarily help many different scientific research projects to extend the knowledge base of human-kind, by developing new ways of finding answers to problems.

For instance, finding a cure for AIDS, (by understanding the way that medicines can be developed to target specific illnesses) or to see what are the important factors influencing Climate Change are just TWO of the many different research projects now possible using BOINC - a standalone program that runs on a PC and which allows the EVERY-ONE, to make a cost-effective (but fundamental) contribution, that will generate life-changing benefits for current and future generations.

BOINC also permits "Teams" to be created and UK BOINC Team is just one collection of many UK-based members who are dedicated to assisting many of the projects. Our "collective reward" is that all credits generated by our membership are totaled together and the sum is then given a "ranking" by various statistics websites, to show our relative position both in our country and in the World. Another statistics site shows your individual credits in both UK and World "leagues".

So, this is YOUR opportunity to get involved and to do YOUR bit, and at little real cost (excepting maybe the cost of electricity if you leave your computer on all the time) and so you will be helping others.

You can find out more about BOINC here

or visit the Unofficial BOINC wiki website here

Why join UK BOINC Team?
If you've just found our website and are interested in joining a Team, then you might be wondering why you should join the UK BOINC Team, compared to any other team. And in fact, I could list many reasons why you should join us...

But you'll just hear the same old "banter" that every other team puts on their websites, so I won't bore you or waste your time, because to be honest every team is going to offer it's members pretty much the same facilities and options.

Instead, I invite you to take a look at our website and see the various links and helpful info we've set-up to help you join BOINC

Visit our Team forum (again free to view, free to join), where even more helpful information can be found. You might even want to join the Forum, before committing yourself to joining the Team, in order to "test the water" - you'll be made very welcome, whether you are a BOINC "newbie" or a seasoned veteran of countless distributed computing projects.

And within the Forum, you'll find a helpful bunch of people all doing their bit, having some fun and generating plenty of credits for all the various BOINC (and some non-BOINC) projects.

Perhaps then you will consider joining the hundreds of other people who are already part of UK BOINC Team and who are participating voluntarily to bring about positive change for the world.

We hope to make you feel "at home" if you join our Team.

with very best regards,
Tim, Founder, UK BOINC Team

Current Fundraising Efforts

We are raising money for the BBC Children In Need 2007 appeal, by holding a Charity Sweepstake, details of which can be found here:

Two of the great nurses from University College Hospital London are walking the Great Wall of China (on 13th Oct 2007) to raise funds for much needed equipment on their ward so if anyone can spare a few pounds it would all help. Target is only £5,000 - to donate, click here>> China Trek

Previous appeal efforts

We helped the wife of one of our members who participated in the Race for Life, in Lincoln, on 13th May 2007.

We helped the relative of one of our members who participated in the Race for Life, in Norwich, on 6th May 2007.