Apollogic devices support World Community Grid research projects

Piotr Ożga, Software Development Manager
- 14th June 2021
- Employee initiatives
- 2 min

At Apollogic, as in any IT company, we use laptops, which over time are no longer sufficient for daily operations. Increased hardware requirements or damage from constant use cause old computers to be replaced by new ones. However, still working laptops can still be used by people in need, which is proven by the success of initiatives such as last year’s campaign coordinated by the Investor Support Office together with the Department of Education of the Poznań City Hall. However, not every laptop remains in good technical condition for many years. What to do with the devices that are badly damaged and can no longer be used conveniently?
Idea on how to reduce e-waste
A broken HDMI port, a damaged matrix or keyboard make it difficult to work with the equipment, but if there is still a working processor inside – not everything is lost. Following zero waste and less waste principles, we do our best not to get rid of stuff as long as it is still useful for someone, and working computers can still do a lot of good.
Supporting advanced cutting-edge scientific research
For many years, IBM has led the World Community Grid philanthropic initiative, which supports scientists in running distributed computing on volunteer devices. Computer owners with spare computing power can take part in the project and use their computers, smartphones and tablets to help find solutions to global challenges related to healthcare, poverty and sustainability. The World Community Grid is a non-profit initiative focusing on humanitarian aid and providing a platform for scientific research on more effective COVID-19, AIDS, cancer and tropical diseases treatment
Any person interested in the project can become a volunteer. WCG software monitors the device’s performance, using only the part of the processor that is not used by the device owner, which means that the user will only notice the warming of the laptop indicating the software is running.

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Once the right software is installed, the volunteers’ old devices help make cutting-edge scientific advances, and laptops donate their computing power to a worthy cause 24 hours a day. Now, after Jan Kałuski, IT Administrator at Apollogic and co-initiator of the volunteer initiative, conducted a successful PoC by running the software on three devices, we plan to expand our network with a few more computers as soon as our used electronic equipment is selected and sorted.
- On 14/06/2021
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