BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- A school district employee in U.S. lost his job after being accused of using school computers to find space aliens, according to media report.

    Brad Niesluchowski, who was heading the information technology department of Higley Unified School District in Arizona, was believed to have added to more than 5,000 district computers a University of California-Berkeley program to search for aliens.

    The program, known as SETI@home, uses Internet-connected computers worldwide in an experiment to search high-frequency radio signals for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

    Superintendent of the school district said the massive software slowed down educational programs in every classroom and cost the district over 1 million U.S. dollars to fix the problem.

    Officials said the alien-seeking software had been running since Niesluchowski was hired nearly 10 years ago. He resigned from the district Oct. 22.

    Local police are investigating the incident.

    (Agencies)