EvE Online Project Discovery

EvE Online Project Discovery is a “citizen science” project contained within EvE Online available to all players as soon as they create a character. Thanks to this unique module, capsuleers can participate in major scientific research by analyzing scientific data provided in a form of a mini-game. This project is under development in cooperation with the University of Geneva and Reykjavik University as a part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Currently, players can participate in analyzing astronomical data in search of actual exoplanets, in the previous edition of Project Discovery players of EvE Online could participate in identifying proteins within human cells. This allowed scientists to build Human Protein Atlas which can help understand how human cells are built.

During the Human Protein Atlas projects players were presented slides of various cells and using the color filters capsuleers had to identify them to create a bigger cellular structure picture. Using the sliders players had to identify which cellular structure is displayed by fluorescent green color and it could be anything from the nucleus, cytoplasm, aggresomes, mitochondria, and more.

Rewards for Project Discovery

For each successful identification, capsuleers were rewarded a certain amount of ISK, Project Discovery experience, and Analysis Credits. The higher the accuracy rating the better the rewards, for example at accuracy rating of 50% pilots would be rewarded with 50 experience and 50,000 ISK per slide. Experience points accumulate giving pilots ranks that display the pilot’s contribution to the project and Analysis Credits are the currency that can be spent at Sisters of EVE Loyalty Point vendors. Items bought for Analysis Credits are Project Discovery specific, you cannot buy regular Sisters of EVE loyalty items with it.

Current active Project Discovery is Exoplanets Hunt. To access it simply press the Project Discovery button on your NeoCom menu to begin a basic tutorial. Once you have completed analyzing the first training tasks you can start analyzing actual scientific data. The graph you see represents stars luminosity (brightness) over a period of 28 days, any orbiting body traveling between the observed star and a telescope will cause a tiny dip in luminosity, your job, as a capsuleer, is to find those dips and mark them. If the planets orbit is shorter than 28 days you may see two or even more drops in star brightness. Sometimes due to stars rotation pattern, the luminosity drops can be hard to identify but by pressing “detrend” button you graph will ignore drops that occur as stars rotational cycle. By dragging the slider you can zoom in or out the graph to analyze the luminosity in detail.

By marking multiple dips and then folding your selection you can check if the tips are periodic by overlapping the dips from different time periods.  

When marking the drops EVE will simulate the orbital pattern of a planet you are currently marking, if you are not sure if its correct you can then create another “planet” for a different set of selections and compare the two and chose which one to submit.

Optionally you can try to classify the type of activity of the observed star. You will see four buttons indicating the four types of star activities and their luminosity patterns so you can compare them to your current one.  

After posting your results, the findings are then confronted with other players’ results to reach a consensus. The graph will show you whether or not your conclusions are similar to those of your fellow capsuleers. The more players analyze the data independently the more solid the consensus becomes. Once acceptable consensus has been reached your accuracy will be rated retroactively based on the community result. The higher your rating will be the better rewards you will receive after each submission.

To learn more about EVE Online project discovery check this official tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12p-VhlFAG8