Przemysław Pawełczak | Call for Action: TU Delft Sustainable ICT Initiative
2 FEBRUARY 2023
Information and communication (ICT) systems are the focus of research of most of us. We try to make ICT trustworthy, reliable, fast, and dependable. We show how ICT can help in making our world a better, less energy-hungry place. Some of us work on making ICT systems more energy efficient, but many of us forget that ICT is also a great consumer of energy and ICT systems are by no means sustainable (just think how much electronic waste you generated last year?)
TU Delft positions itself as a climate action-driven university and there are already valuable initiatives taken to make TU Delf energy-neutral (https://www.tudelft.nl/en/sustainability/it-data-management-ai). Sadly, in my opinion, despite many world-class experts working at TU Delft in sub-domains of sustainable ICT (energy-efficient datacenters, 5G and beyond energy-efficient communication, energy-efficient code development, etc.), the knowledge is splintered and spread around many non-cooperating groups. There are no umbrella programs that stimulate, promote, and develop all *research* initiatives leading towards sustainable ICT (at TU Delft and nation-wide). Addressing this problem, in this talk I will present what steps I have taken to kick-start the Sustainable ICT Initiative at TU Delft, what do I want to achieve with it, and ask you for your input and help.
Przemysław Pawełczak (https://www.przemyslawpawelczak.com) is an associate professor in the Embedded Systems group at TU Delft, leading Sustainable Systems Lab (SSL) (http://github.com/tudssl). In the past ten years his research circulated around the idea of removing batteries from the Internet of Things and replacing them with more sustainable energy harvesters. Some of the developed experimental battery-free platforms developed at SSL include battery-free gaming console or Bluetooth communications system that can sustain communication despite power interrupts from harvested energy.