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$1000 - Frank Ortmann

Prize Winner - March 20, 2013

After finishing my PhD in Operations Research 3 years ago, I was fortunate to get to work on software used to design superconducting circuits. Working on problems in engineering, mathematics, physics and operations research is a challenge, but it is something I love doing. I also get to do it from Stellenbosch, surrounded by beautiful vineyards and mountains!

I came across Charity Engine in one of the many tech blogs I read. I was really impressed by their business model and wanted to help out, so I signed up. Now I have won $1000! I am a lucky guy!

Towards zero-carbon computing

Blog - March 11, 2013 by Mark McA

Supercomputers and data-centres have two problems that aren't going away: energy and heat. The largest facilities cost billions of dollars and consume megawatts of electricity, enough to power small towns. Not only are more built every year, they're also getting bigger.

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From sci-fi to start-up: the origin of Charity Engine

Blog - March 8, 2013 by Mark McA

Many years ago, I started writing a couple of sci-fi novels. One of them was called Off-camera, a story about the near-future in which everything (and I mean everything) is recorded. In that story, a company called DownTime becomes a huge multinational from harnessing - you guessed it - the downtime of billions of home computers.

(Strictly speaking, it was badly named. Downtime means switched off. But hey, the 'IdleTime Corporation' sounded worse...)

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