This year was a big challenge for everyone. As we were preparing our vehicle for more appearances and while we had so many events and campaigns to run, the pandemic changed our plans, as it did to millions of people around the world.
However, our team continued to work on the design of our new vehicle, while at the same time we were trying to find a way in which we could use our influence in order to help at combat COVID-19 in our own way.
Of course, the first thing we thought of was the 3D printed masks for hospitals and other institutions. However, because of not providing 3D printer and our sponsors working with 3D printers were already in the making of masks, there was not much to do in this area.
So, after a lot of searching, we meeted the "Folding Home".
Folding Home is a distributed computing system that simulates the dynamics of proteins, including the folding process and the movements of proteins involved in a variety of diseases.
It brings together scientists who volunteer to offer simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computer. Information from these data helps them better understand biology and provide new opportunities for the development of therapeutic tools.
This means that anyone can be part of a supercomputer, providing a small amount of computing power for biomedical purposes – vital function simulations for biomedical researchers and, especially during this period, to combat COVID-19.
After a bit of research, we discovered that there was no similar organized action here in Greece supporting this purpose, so we started a team on the platform! However, our team had few people and the success of this project is based on numbers.
That’s why we got in touch with the other teams and communities of the NTUA to participate in this #FightCovidFromHome campaign.
Evaluation and Results
As for the results of this campaign, after a month and a half we managed to contribute such an amount to the platform that we were part of more than 2.5% of the total from teams. Groups are ranked according to the points or units of calculation they have contributed.
We are in a position, regarding this campaign, to thank our fans and partners for all their support!
Learn More about the Action: https://foldingathome.org/
