Benchmarking Gender Differences in Volunteer Computing Projects

Abstract

Volunteer Computing (VC) uses the computational resources of volunteers with Internet-connected personal computers to address fundamental problems in science. Docking Home (D@H) is a VC project targeting drug discovery through high throughput docking simulations i.e., by docking small molecules (ligands) into target proteins associated to diseases. Currently there are more than 27,000 volunteers (and 70,000 computers) worldwide supporting D@H. Similar to national trends in STEM fields, in general, the huge majority of volunteers engaged in VC projects, and in D@H in particular, are Caucasian males. This paper aims to characterize the current VC community supporting D@H and uses the information to define strategies that can help attract and retain female and ethnic minority volunteers.