Sprints 2024 - timetable and projects selected

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

I've started a new thread based on the dates and times of the forthcoming Sprints and also to give an indication of which Sprints have been chosen each time.

As before, *every* project available for a Sprint can be randomly selected for *any* Sprint - so just because a specific project has been selected for one Sprint event, does not mean it is excluded from being selected at another time.

The current timetable for the 24 Sprints this calendar year (in long date format with actual F1 race start and end times shown) are as follows:

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#1 Bahrain Grand Prix - 28 February-2 March - (1500-1659 UTC) - extended by 4 hours, due to minor bug collecting stats 
#2 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - 6-9 March - (1700-1900 UTC)

#3 Australian Grand Prix - 21-24 March - (0400-0600 UTC)
#4 Japanese Grand Prix - 4-7 April - (0600-0800 UTC)

#5 Chinese Grand Prix - 18-21 April - (0800-1000 UTC)
#6 Miami Grand Prix - 2-5 May - (2200-2359 UTC)

#7 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - 16-19 May - (1400-1600 UTC)
#8 Monaco Grand Prix - 23-26 May - (1400-1600 UTC)

#9 Canadian Grand Prix - 6-9 June - (1900-2100 UTC)
#10 Spanish Grand Prix - 20-23 June - (1400-1600 UTC)

#11 Austrian Grand Prix - 27-30 June - (1400-1600 UTC)
#12 British Grand Prix - 4-7 July - (1500-1700 UTC)

#13 Hungarian Grand Prix - 18-21 July - (1400-1600 UTC)
#14 Belgian Grand Prix - 25-28 July - (1400-1600 UTC)

** F1 Summer Break **

#15 Dutch Grand Prix - 22-25 August - (1400-1600 UTC)
#16 Italian Grand Prix - 29 August-1 September - (1400-1600 UTC)

#17 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - 12-15 September - (1200-1400 UTC)
#18 Singapore Grand Prix - 19-22 September - (1300-1500 UTC)

** F1 Autumn Break **

#19 United States Grand Prix - 17-20 October - (1900-2100 UTC)
#20 Mexican Grand Prix - 24-27 October - (1900-2100 UTC)

#21 Brazilian Grand Prix - 31 Oct-3 November - (1600-1800 UTC)
#22 Las Vegas Grand Prix - 21-24 November - (0500-0700 UTC)

#23 Qatar Grand Prix - 29 November-1 December - (1500-1700 UTC)
#24 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - 5-8 December - (1200-1400 UTC)

#25 - PrimeGrid GFN-21 Challenge - 10-20 December - (1815 UTC) 

NB: Times are subject to change, depending on unforeseen circumstances.

18th Sept edit: Some Sprint times shown above have been changed as they were either incorrect when first entered OR the organisers have changed the start/finish times.

The following is the list of "selectable" projects that have already chosen (so far):

Projects already selected this year (in alphabetical order):

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Asteroids@home - #2 and #12 Sprints
Einstein@Home - #13 and #22 Sprints
Gerasim - #5 and #18 Sprints
Moo! Wrapper - #10 Sprint
NFS@Home - #9 and #16 Sprints 
NumberFields - #1, #11 and #19 Sprints
PrimeGrid - Test, #4, #6 and #17 Sprints
SiDock@home - #7 Sprint
SRBase - #3 and #21 Sprints
The Ramanujan Machine - #8 and #15 Sprints
World Community Grid - #14 and #20 Sprints

- #23 Sprint
- #24 Sprint
** EXTRA CHALLENGE - in tandem with the PrimeGrid GFN-21 Challenge from 10th-20th December **
- #25 Sprint 

Other possible Sprint projects are below which have yet to be chosen, though some may NOT be chosen mainly due to tasks not being available from them (in high numbers) (and in alphabetical order):

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Amicable Numbers		
GPUGRID
iThena.Computational
LHC@home
MilkyWay@home
PRIVATE GFN SERVER
RakeSearch
Rosetta@home
TN-Grid
Universe@Home
yoyo@home

As per last year, Sprint projects can be chosen more than once per "season" and the method used will once again be at "random", though I will also contact the respective project admins prior to each Sprint starting, to ensure that the project will be up and running and will have available tasks.

Of course, if the status of a project changes during the season, (such as the project shutting down) then it will be removed from the list.

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

I have made contact with the Project Admin at the randomly selected project for Sprint #1 which includes every FB team that has registered - Every league has the same project during each sprint, no matter which League each Team is in.

I await confirmation that their server will be able to cope with the expected high number of task downloads once the Sprint starts.

regards
Tim

[entity]

I wouldn't focus specifically on the ability to download tasks. The admins should also take into account the ability to handle and process the uploaded data including bandwidth, validation, disk space, server processing capabilities to handle the increased workload, utilities that could impact the server like backups, data purges, stats gathering etc.

[UBT - Timbo]

I wouldn't focus specifically on the ability to download tasks. The admins should also take into account the ability to handle and process the uploaded data including bandwidth, validation, disk space, server processing capabilities to handle the increased workload, utilities that could impact the server like backups, data purges, stats gathering etc.

Hi

Yes, you are quite right to point out these further issues...however, most Admins who get in touch with me are aware that these Challenges are time sensitive so, they know that their back-office systems *must* work correctly - and in general, mostly everything does work (except when an unexpected failure occurs...but that's life !).

And of course, this is why some projects are NOT featured as potential Sprint projects, due to their limited capabilities to handle high data volumes and increased CPU demands to deal with significant bandwidth issues for both downloading tasks and uploading completed work units.

I'm also sure that ANY project anomalies that affect volunteers where their completed work units are not validated and credited within a reasonable time span will be reported on which can cause volunteers to switch to other projects.

However, there is still ONE issue which is difficult to solve and that is where the quorum is not met within the Sprint timeframe and hence some tasks are not credited until well after the end of the Sprint. Of course, we could EXCLUDE projects that set a quorum of more than 1, but that would then limit how many projects are available to choose from...

At the end of the day, the most important part of a Sprint that is absolutely required is that the project *must* have an abundance of tasks - as everything after that is moot, if there are NO tasks !

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

The selected Project Admin has contacted me and they are aware that Sprint #1 is taking place and no issues are expected.

Reminder: The 1st Sprint starts on 28th February at 1700 UTC

Best of luck to everyone taking part !

regards
Tim

[JeromeC]

I had not seen this topic : so the project will be published at the exact start hour of the sprint ? on the main FB page and/or here also ?

[n3Ro]

Ok, Sprint at Numberfields is theoretically running, but stats are not refreshing or counting at all on FB homepage. Does it work? Has it started as planned?

Thx,
n3Ro

[joe carnivore]

No updates now?

2024-02-28 17:00 UTC - 2024-03-02 16:59 UTC

[UBT - Timbo]

I had not seen this topic : so the project will be published at the exact start hour of the sprint ? on the main FB page and/or here also ?

Hi

Yes the project name has been announced hehe !!

https://formula-boinc.org/sprints.py?ra ... sprintid=3

Stats do not look like are being displayed yet, so I hope Sebastien is checking this online in real time.

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Ok, Sprint at Numberfields is theoretically running, but stats are not refreshing or counting at all on FB homepage. Does it work? Has it started as planned?

Thx,
n3Ro

Hi

I've just got home from work and yes, the stats do not seem to be displayed. Hopefully Sebastien is taking an interest in this to ensure it can be repaired.

regards
Tim