In some much-needed good news, it seems like EVE Online players have submitted millions of data classifications towards COVID-19 research.
That research is equivalent to about 150 years worth of work to aid scientists in learning about COVID-19’s effect on our bodies. This is all part of Phase 3 of Project Discovery. If you’re unaware, Project Discovery is CCP’s citizen science initiative that has helped researchers identify exoplanets in the solar system and better understand how human cells are built.
In a press release, CCP shared some statistics which include:
- 41.4 million classifications completed
- 264 average classifications per user
- 171,000 players completed the tutorial
- 157,000 active players solving tasks
- 148.35 work years spent on solving tasks
- 32.51 years spent on solving tasks
- 707,000 unique tasks in the system for players to solve
This resulted in a total of 39.6 million submissions with 466,000 of those already verified for scientific research use. The press release also introduces the scientists behind the project which include teams from McGill University, BC Cancer and front-line COVID-19 clinicians such as Dr Andrea Cossarizza (Professor of Immunology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia School of Medicine in Italy).
EVE Online Creative Director, Bergur Finnabogson, said of the project,
“The current phase of Project Discovery is perhaps one of the most timely issues we have ever engaged in and the response from players has been nothing short of astounding. With over 30 million submissions made by our players I am reminded once again of the amazing community that sits at the core of EVE Online, and the proof that we can once again achieve the impossible over the insurmountable.”
If you’re interested in progress from the computer scientists and bioinformatics team, check out their page here.
