Adriadn Ortega, senior in political science, discovered a program he had never heard of running on friend’s computer. Upon investigating further, Ortega became interested in getting himself involved — along with informing other students of the project.

The program Ortega discovered is World Community Grid, and he decided Facebook would be the way to get other students involved.

“Why not contribute computer time you are not using?” Ortega said.

IBM launched World Community Grid on November 16, 2004, according to its Web site. It began as a non-profit organization with the goal of creating cures for some of the more puzzling diseases affecting mankind. According to the site, anyone with a computer is able to download the program.

“[Through World Community Grid] everyone has the ability to help with causes important to mankind,” IBM employee Clint Roswell said.

According to Roswell, the mission of World Community Grid is to create one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers by using member’s time running the program to benefit humanity.

Roswell said the program runs constantly in the background, using extra processing cycles the user’s computer is not using to power the grid. The World Community Grid depends on people around the world to devote unused computing time to research, according to Roswell.

“The more people, the more power,” Roswell said.

Ortega’s Facebook group has grown to 112 members since it began. There are also worldwide Facebook groups, containing more than 1000 members combined.

Marjory Bejos, junior in microbiology, received an invitation from Ortega on Facebook to join World Community Grid.

“If anyone is like me and leaves their computer on all the time, it sends thousands of [calculations and] combinations for research,” Bejos said. “It’s pretty cool.”

When getting involved in World Community Grid there is also an actual N.C. State team that students can join when downloading the program, according to both Bejos and Ortega.

“[As a member of World Community Grid] you’re devoting idle time to a good cause,” Ortega said.