SG@home Ideas Competition Launched

3 September 2004

Grid Computing runs the gamut from the humble low-end Personal Computers (PCs) through clusters to supercomputers. Indeed, through the aggregation of a huge number of PCs, it is possible to obtain the computing power of a supercomputer. This is typically referred to as PC Grid Computing.

The SG@home project aims to harness the spare cycles of PCs in homes, schools and other organisations to work on a cause-worthy grand challenge that appeals to Singaporeans. Of the many tasks that need to be undertaken to get this project off the ground, perhaps the most important is the identification of such a grand challenge.

The aim of the SG@home Ideas Competition is to elicit ideas for a grand challenge project that embodies a combination of enticing, educational and cause-worthy factors. Such a project should be computationally massive while at the same time be amenable to being partitioned into many smaller parts so that each component part can be run simultaneously in smaller computing devices, such as a PC. The competition is a channel to tap onto the collective creative talents of our students and the general public to identify suitable challenges. The competition also creates awareness of Grid Computing and promotes it as a technology. The winning idea(s) may be translated into real application(s) that will run using the aggregated computing power of many PCs in homes, schools and other organisations.

The SG@home Ideas Competition is now open. The competition is jointly organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the Educational Technology Division of the Ministry of Education (MOE), the National Grid Office (NGO) and the Singapore Science Centre (SSC).

It has 3 categories: Schools, Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and Open. There will be 3 prizes for each category. In addition, for the Schools and IHLs categories, a prize will be awarded to the school and IHL that has contributed the most number of shortlisted ideas. Winners will walk away with prizes sponsored by Hewlett-Packard.

Interested parties can submit a description of their ideas in no more than 500 words via http://www.ngp.org.sg/sghome. The competition opens today, 3 September 2004 and will close at 5pm on 15 October 2004. The winners will be announced in October / November 2004. The entries will be judged on their mass appeal or “cool factor”, worthiness of the cause, creativity and originality. Other factors include educational value and technical feasibility.

For further information on the SG@home Ideas Competition, please refer to the SG@home website at http://www.ngp.org.sg/sghome. For more information on PC Grid Computing, please refer to Annex A.

About Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is committed to growing Singapore into a dynamic global infocomm hub. IDA uses an integrated approach to developing infocommunications in Singapore. This involves nurturing a competitive telecoms market as well as a conducive business environment with programmes and schemes for both local and international companies. For more information, please visit http://www.ida.gov.sg

About Educational Technology Division/Ministry of Education
The Educational Technology Division (ETD) of the Ministry of Education champions the use of educational technologies to enhance educational processes. ETD provides customised professional development to teachers, consultancy for technology planning in schools, digital resource development to support the curriculum and leads in research and development programmes to support the implementation of the second Masterplan for IT in education. For more information, please visit http://www.moe.gov.sg.

About National Grid Office
The National Grid Office was set up on 2 January 2003. The National Grid vision is to realize "A Singapore where computing resources can be connected together via a high-speed network such that these resources can be shared in a secure, reliable and efficient manner by authenticated users for education, commercial, entertainment, research and development, national security, and other purposes so as to improve the economic & technological competitiveness of Singapore and also the quality of life in Singapore.

We aim to develop the framework and infrastructure to achieve the vision for National Grid by the following means: Formulate the framework and policies; Plan and develop a secure platform; Adopt common open standards; Encourage the adaptation of Grid Computing; Demonstrate the commercial viability of compute-resource-on-tap; and lay the foundation for a vibrant Grid Computing economy. For more information, please visit http://www.ngp.org.sg.

About Singapore Science Centre
The Singapore Science Centre promotes science and technology through exploration, discovery and non-formal self-learning to the public and to students via an integrated approach consisting of interactive exhibits, hands-on enrichment programmes, scientific publications and outreach activities. It has brought science into shopping malls, open parks and onto television screens. The Singapore Science Centre, with its some 1000 exhibits and a 276-seater Omnimax theatre, is located along Jurong Town Hall Road. For more information please visit http://www.science.edu.sg.

For more information, please contact:
Choo Thong Tiong
Assistant Head (Promotion)
National Grid Office
21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Singapore 119613

Tel: (65) 6874-5583
Fax: (65) 6872-1361
Email: thongtiong@ngp.org.sg

Annex A: About SG@home

Annex A: About SG@home

1. What is Grid Computing?

Grid computing is the sharing of computing resources that may be at different locations and across organisations. A large number of connected computing devices can work together to perform a common task through specially written software. The collective powers of a large number of connected Personal Computers (PCs) working this way can rival that of a supercomputer. This is typically referred to as PC Grid Computing. For more details, please see the article on “Garage-Patch Grids” at URL: http://www.ngp.org.sg/articlesindex.html

Most @home applications make use of software from organisations such as United Devices or Entropia, although some developed their own (e.g. Korea).

2. Some @home Projects

Some existing implementations of PC Grid Computing are listed below.

To participate in any of the above projects, a user downloads a client software that runs on the PC as a screensaver. When a PC is idle, the screensaver is activated and it requests a task from its master server. Upon completion of the task, results are returned to the master server, and another task gets dispatched to the PC.

3. What is SG@home?

Just as several countries have embarked upon national scale @home projects, the National Grid Office, the Infocomm Development Authority, the Educational Technology Division of the Ministry of Education and the Singapore Science Centre have come together to germinate such a project for Singapore.

The key challenge lies in identifying an enticing, educational and cause-worthy application that appeals to both school students and the public at large. This may be a grand challenge that requires many years worth of computing.

Examples include:

• A 2-player board game such that one player is a human (anyone who logs in to play) while the other player driven is driven by a specified number of PCs. The larger number of PCs typically has more computing resources to calculate the number of board positions from which to choose the next best move for the machine.
• Breast cancer detection program (given that this is a major killer disease in Singapore).

The competition that we are holding is an avenue to identify the grand challenge.