# [Challenge] Wonderful Rice Power Time



## FordGT90Concept (Jul 24, 2009)

We are currently ranked at 20 in this challenge which is excellent considering the opposition:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/challenge/viewTeamChallenge.do?challengeId=2765

If you look more closely, you'll see TPU has the most average points on the entire list (by 3.14 times) and, because this is averages, it is much harder for a large team like us to get on top.  Very impressive all things considered. 


Unfortunately, the challenge is ending in 7 days...


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 27, 2009)

We moved up a rank! 

4 days left...


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## hat (Jul 27, 2009)

What exactly does the rice app do? Does loading my cpu with a rice app make rice grow faster?


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## HammerON (Jul 27, 2009)

What can we do to help increase our rank?


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 28, 2009)

I think they are trying to map the genome of rice which makes it easier to engineer a more productive plant.  At least that's my guess.


To improve rank, contribute more (a lot more) to the Rice project.


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## Poppageek (Jul 31, 2009)

Welcome to the Nutritious Rice for the World project!

*Rice is one of primary staple foods of the world.* We are using our structure prediction algorithms available at Protinfo to predict the high resolution structures of proteins expressed in major rice strains. We will then use these structures to predict function, and interaction with other molecules including proteins, DNA, RNA, and nutrients (ions, small molecules, etc.) using tools also available at the Protinfo site. *The eventual goal is to help farmers use marker assisted breeding to produce better rice strains with higher crop yields, greater disease and pest resistance, and that will provide a full range of bioavailable nutrients thereby benefiting those in regions where hunger and nutrient deficiency is a critical concern.* To accomplish this we need to understand the behavior of rice proteins, and this in turn is aided by understanding their molecular structure. Our software can predict the structure, but the computational challenge to solve this problem is great and would require decades of computing time on our best computer cluster. *We expect that it can be done in about a year using World Community Grid. *We are excited to bring this challenge to World Community Grid, and welcome your participation!

In addition to the information on the World Community Grid pages, you may follow along with our progress on this site.

Thanks!

Ram Samudrala, Principal Investigator on the Nutritious Rice for the World team


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## PaulieG (Jul 31, 2009)

Poppageek said:


> Welcome to the Nutritious Rice for the World project!
> 
> *Rice is one of primary staple foods of the world.* We are using our structure prediction algorithms available at Protinfo to predict the high resolution structures of proteins expressed in major rice strains. We will then use these structures to predict function, and interaction with other molecules including proteins, DNA, RNA, and nutrients (ions, small molecules, etc.) using tools also available at the Protinfo site. *The eventual goal is to help farmers use marker assisted breeding to produce better rice strains with higher crop yields, greater disease and pest resistance, and that will provide a full range of bioavailable nutrients thereby benefiting those in regions where hunger and nutrient deficiency is a critical concern.* To accomplish this we need to understand the behavior of rice proteins, and this in turn is aided by understanding their molecular structure. Our software can predict the structure, but the computational challenge to solve this problem is great and would require decades of computing time on our best computer cluster. *We expect that it can be done in about a year using World Community Grid. *We are excited to bring this challenge to World Community Grid, and welcome your participation!
> 
> ...



Hey, are you on our WCG team? If not, you should be. Good to see another TN guy here...


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## Poppageek (Jul 31, 2009)

Thanks for the invite! I am on Team XS. But more important I am on The Grid since 2004! Anything I can do to help get more people crunching no matter what team they join I want to do. Noticed some chatter that TPU wants more members and since I am happy where I am I hope I can help TPU recruit more crunchers. I know other XS team members have helped here and still drop in now and then and I hit the main site here daily for tech news.

I plan to do a few information postings here that I did at XS that recruited several new memebers. Hopefully they will work for you as well. I would be happy if I can help this team grow even bigger than it already has. You have done very well and post some nice numbers.

Competition can be fun but what's important is helping scientist and researchers find the solutions to the plagues  that face mankind. I have lost people I love to cancer and have seen children with cancer and MS. I feel grateful there is something, no matter how small, I can do to try and help those who want to stop these evils in their tracks!

BTW - Love TN, been here three years now and here to stay!

Keep on Crunching! It matters!


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 2, 2009)

This challenge is over.  TPU finished 19th.


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