REBUILDING A NETWORK

During the recent period where trust in the Vodafone network was at an all time low, we approached them with a proactive product idea to help turn the tide of negativity and demonstrate faith in their network. 

The idea came from a simple behavioural observation. I had noticed each person took their phone out and placed it on the desk upside down, where they remained untouched till the end of the meeting. This led me to think more broadly about our relationship with our phones, of all the hours each night our phones would sit idle on charge, I realised there was a considerable amount of under utilised computing power waiting to be harnessed.

The question we posed to Vodafone was: How could we harness that unused power, across a whole network of phones?

CROWDSOURCED POWER

Modern medical research relies on large expensive supercomputers to run infinitely complex simulations to learn how cancers form and help discover new drugs for treatment. In partnership with the Vodafone Foundation and Garvin Medical Institute we developed Power for Good, Australia's first mobile supercomputer. 

Using the notion of distributed computing, our DreamLab app would allow a customer's phone to process a small part of complex medical research, such as simulating how cancer cells replicate.  With the sheer scale of Vodafone’s customer base, we could create Australia's largest super computer. Scientists would face shorter waiting times for access and research results. Participants could contribute without donating a cent or second. 

A POSITIVE CHANGE

Since its inception the partnership with Garvan and Vodafone has seen a project earmarked with a timeline of two years, be completed in nine months with the collective processing power of the Dreamlab app. Bringing Garvan's researchers closer to finding a cure.

The Vodafone Foundation have taken this initial idea and prototype and expanded it into an evolving product over the last 5 years, with the help of Transpire to launch in the UK and Italy.