The Seti@home project is a method to Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) by sending chunks of data to volunteers' computers for analysis. The technique of breaking up a large problem into smaller pieces so that many computers can work on it at once is called distributed computing, and has already been used to break the some of the toughest encryption schemes around.
Ada Kerman and Herald Williams have formed a
team to keep track of the amount of work their computers have put into
Seti@home - the Seti Hawks. (Hawk from their initials). Anyone else is
welcome to join this team - the more members working on the project, the
more impressive the team's results!