RIchfield, MN — What if the millions of idle computers sitting on desks and in homes worldwide could be linked together to focus on humanity’s most pressing issues? What if your old computer could fight disease, reduce poverty and improve environmental sustainability? Those are just a few of questions that hit home with Metro Sales founder and CEO Jerry Mathwig when he read a piece in Fast Company Magazine about the World Community Grid program in early 2010.
World Community Grid is an IBM initiative that aims to harness the processing power of idle computers to solve some of the most formidable issues facing humanity today. IBM’s grid technology joins individual computers together, creating a collective group whose computational power can even exceed that of some supercomputers.
After reading the article, Mathwig decided to take action, committing Metro Sales to the program in early 2010. As of August 2016 Metro Sales has contributed over 219 years of run-time and generated 216,136,104 points towards researching solutions to problems like Zika, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis.
Said Mathwig, “It really struck me how inefficient our computer usage was. After all, there were times when our computers were on but not being used for work. When I heard about World Community Grid, I was immediately excited about the possibility of turning that unused power into a positive force for good.”
There was also a common connection to the company’s core value of process improvement. “As a Six Sigma company, we’re always looking to improve our processes and cut waste,” said Mathwig. “In my mind, it’s important that sort of commitment extends beyond just business operations to help improve the community as well. That’s why I really felt drawn to the World Community Grid project.”
Metro Sales also took the additional step of establishing a dedicated Fargo Computer center where they send old computers that are no longer used by employees. Whereas these computers would normally be disposed of, instead they’re contributing their computational power to World Community Grid projects.
In 2016, Metro Sales decided to take their commitment to the next level by becoming a World Community Grid partner. In doing so, Metro Sales joins the IBM Corporation and a group of more than 400 organizations who are fighting to solve the world’s most pressing issues. Those interesting in joining Metro Sales should visit the World Community Grid website and join the Metro Sales team.
To contribute, individuals simply download and install a free, small software program on their computers. When idle, your computer will request data from World Community Grid’s server. Computers then perform computations using this data, send the results back to the server and prompt it for a new piece of work.
