Winning Idea : Linking Home PCs to Crack Terrorist Codes

VOLUNTEER to let your home PC join a nationwide network, or grid, of computers - and you could help the Government crack terrorist codes.

This was one of the ideas that won the top three prizes at the grid computing competition, SG@home, held by the National Grid Office (NGO) from Sept 3 to Oct 17.

The idea came from research engineer Leong Kok Hong, 36, who said he read how terrorists were using software technology to encrypt communications into secret codes. It would need a lot of computing power to decipher what the codes mean, which such a network of computers can provide, said Mr Leong.

The competition, which attracted almost 800 entries, was part of the Government's drive to harness unused computing power among the 700,000 Internet-enabled home computers here.

The other top winning ideas came from two students : Seventeen-year-old Celine Koh proposed using grid computing to predict Singapore's weather, while Miss Chee Pooi Mun, 21, from Nanyang Polytechnic, came up with the idea of making a digital documentary of Singapore's history using a combination of graphics, photographs, special effects and animation that would also need a lot of computing power.

A total of nine ideas won prizes like Hewlett-Packard digital cameras and desktops at the SG@home prize-giving ceremony yesterday.

Professor Lawrence Wong, NGO's director, said the SG@home project was aimed at making grid computing "more accessible to the average Singaporean".

That was why the winning ideas were chosen based on factors like mass appeal and whether they would contribute towards a worthy cause that benefits society, said Dr Cheong Kam Khow, a spokesman for the SG@home judging committee.

The NGO, said Prof Wong, is working to see if any of these ideas can become a real grid computing application in six months, but no details are available yet.

[Source: Straits Times, 18 Nov 04, Thursday]