Wright State University | College of Science and Mathematics | Mathematics and Statistics

SETI@home at Wright State

What is SETI@home?
How do I Join the Wright State Group?
News
FAQ (Questions)

What is SETI@home?

SETI is an acronym for "Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence".

SETI@ home is an ambitious scientific project which is using desktop computers around the world to analyze data from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico for possible anomalous signals. Software is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix platforms, and all interested parties are welcome to download the software and contribute to the project. As of March 4, 2002, over 3.5 million users from 226 countries have contributed over 900,000 years of computer time. The software runs as a "screen saver", running only when the computer is not otherwise in use. You can contribute some of that wasted idle time on your computer to a good cause. For further information and downloads, go to the official web site by clicking on the graphic below.

Click here for a screen shot of SETI@home in action! (Graphical interface on Windows and MacOS platforms)

How do I Join the Wright State Group?

If you choose to participate, SETI@home maintains a record of your contributions and also allows you to credit your contributions to a group. I have taken the liberty of creating a group called "Wright State University" and invite you to credit your contributions to that group. Click here to view our groups statistics. Here's how to join:

1. Make sure you have downloaded at least one data set, and have the email address assigned to your account.
2. Go the SETI@ home web site and click on "Groups" under "Use SETI@home", and find the group Wright State University ( or just click on this link).
3. Click on the "Join this Group" link, and fill in your email address and password.
   (You will have to ask them to send you your password.)

There is no harm in waiting to join a group. When you join, all your credit you've accumulated up to that point will be assigned to the group.

News

March 4, 2002

The Wright State group now has 34 members, nearly 20,000 data sets completed, and over 36 years of processor time contributed. The Calculus Lab account (20 Macintosh G3/350s) is among the top 5000 accounts in the project and has completed over 10,000 data sets.

FAQ

Why am I having trouble joining the Wright State group?

You have to download a data set before you can join a group. In the startup process you will have to give an email address; you will need this and your password to join a group. As far as I know the only way to get your password is to ask them to send it to you. You can do this from the "Join This Group" page off the Wright State Group page. It only takes a couple minutes for your password to arrive by email.

Who is taking SETI@home seriously?

Many of the most prestigious universities are involved in a big way, as are many major technology corporations. Check out the group statistics for the top universities and large companies.

What is WSU's official position on participating in SETI@home?

As far as running it on university equipment is concerned, the following response is from Verne Smith of CATS:
"CaTS has no specific stance on SETI. ... it is our general opinion that it would be covered under general acceptable/academic use guidelines. While we would not offer support to clients attempting to run the software, they are free to install it themselves. However, if we were to determine that it was interfering with the proper operation of the client's system, we would advise them of this fact and suggest its removal. (Much like we do with certain agressive screensavers that can have a negative impact on system performance.) So long as such programs fall within university acceptable use guidelines, there should be no problem running them."

Will SETI@home detect extraterrestrial intelligent life?

Although I believe that intelligent life exists elsewhere, I think it is very unlikely that this project will detect it. But we have to try, and in any case this is good science that needs to be done. It is always possible that the project will discover something important that it was not looking for.

 

Also see the FAQ section at the SETI@home web site, and the help pages http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/windows_help.html or http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/mac_help.html.