The bikes were hooked up to generators that supplied direct current energy to a converter which, in turn, fed couple of small SiCortex supercomputers with alternating current. At the time, the computers were running a program that simulates a fusion reaction. According to the findings, a traditional supercomputer would have required 10x as much electricity to perform the same calculations. In the end, the team did its part to promote alternative sources of energy —let's just hope, for the cycling team's sake, that the focus at MIT stays on nuclear fusion as this alternative energy source, and not the legs of its top athletes. [XConomy and Gizmag]