Author: AdrianFriday

Digital detox – rethinking data centre design (podcast)

/ AdrianFriday

Delighted to see our podcast interview with Hoare Lee published yesterday, drawing on our Patterns article and the Royal Society DTAP report.  Kelly and I talking about the energy and carbon impacts of ICT, and reflecting on how we might start to think about accounting and governing this.  We definitely namecheck Kelly’s new project (Paris-DE) focusing on ‘Paris compliant computing’ (read more).

Podcast context: “A digital detox is a common new year’s resolution, and the planet needs one on an industrial scale – our everyday internet actions contributing considerably to the climate emergency.”

Talk on impacts of ICT to ISMB special session on ‘Computational Biology going Green’

/ AdrianFriday

Really enjoyed my talk and panel discussion at ISMB on considering impacts of both AI on energy footprint, but also the wider impacts of academic practice including conferences. [Talk slides].  I followed excellent and thought provoking talks by Roy Schwartz stressing increased need for reporting of computational budgets, and making efficiency an evaluation criterion for research alongside accuracy and related measures (toward ‘Green AI’); and Loïc Lannelongue on their ‘green algorithms’ project (link) – which estimates the energy/carbon intensity of AI on GPU clusters given a set of parameters.

PDRA advertised work with us! Closes 14th Feb

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We’re looking for a Research Associate to work on the development of novel software tools to help businesses analyse multi-dimensional energy and contextual data within the recently awarded, £1.6M EPSRC “Reducing end use Energy Demand in Commercial Settings Through Digital Innovation” programme, together with a number of major UK industrial partners. Closes 14th Feb. Find out more.

Limits to the sharing economy?

/ AdrianFriday

There has been much interest in the Sharing Economy in recent years, accompanied with the hope that it will change and specifically make better use of existing resources. From a sustainability point of view,  sharing of resources is good, surely? It could even be said that the Sharing Economy ought to align well with Computing within Limits and its underlying premises. In this paper with Daniel Pargman and Elina Eriksson at KTH, however, we take a critical stance and will elaborate on the intersection between the Sharing Economy and Limits. Download The paper in PDF format.

Food Design for Sustainability workshop at the Design Research Society 50th Anniversary Conference, Brighton, 27th July, 2016

/ AdrianFriday

Just shy of 1/3rd of our global carbon footprint is food related. Up to 1/3 of the food purchased in the developed world is wasted by the consumer. Approximately 60% of the adult population in the USA, UK and Australia is overweight or obese – with no signs of this trend decreasing.

Selection of low impact foods, available to discuss and eat during the workshop!

Selection of low impact foods, available to discuss and eat during the workshop!

Check out our Food Design for sustainability workshop at DRS this year. Also, you can find the engagement cards and food impact data sheets we used and built on during the workshop.