Pittsburgh Review

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science will contribute to two multi-institution research initiatives aimed at reducing carbon use and creating sustainable computing. The projects recently received funding through the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Expeditions in Computing Awards program, which is providing $36 million to three projects selected for their potential to revolutionize computing and make significant impacts toward reducing the carbon footprint of the lifecycle of computers.

The Expeditions program is an ambitious initiative providing some of the largest investments from the NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) to support transformative research poised to yield lasting impacts on society, the economy, and technological advancement. "We are thrilled to announce these visionary projects that will advance environmental responsibility and foster innovation in the field of computing," said Dilma Da Silva, acting assistant director for CISE. "Congratulations to these pioneering teams, whose research will forge new pathways in computational decarbonization and in revolutionizing operating system design with machine learning."

One project, NSF Expeditions in Computing for Computational Decarbonization of Societal Infrastructures at Mesoscales, will develop the new field of computational decarbonization (CoDec) to focus on the lifecycle of carbon emissions—from production and use—across different societal infrastructures such as computing, transportation, buildings, and the power grid.

Climate change from carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions poses an existential threat to Earth’s ecosystem and humanity. But curbing energy use and focusing on energy efficiency alone will not sufficiently reduce carbon emissions. Instead, efforts should aim for decarbonization by focusing on optimizing for carbon efficiency.

SCS faculty will collaborate with researchers from five institutions to develop new sensing technologies to better show and track carbon footprints, use AI and optimization theories to further energy flexibility, and ultimately create software and systems to optimize carbon use.

Yuvraj Agarwal will serve as the lead principal investigator from CMU and will be joined by Zico Kolter on the project team. Agarwal and Kolter bring expertise in topics including sensing, systems security and privacy, artificial intelligence, using data to incentivize decision-making, and understanding how computing interacts with smart buildings and efficient infrastructure.

“This project will use computing techniques to help address decarbonization, which is arguably one of this generation’s most pressing societal challenges,” said Agarwal. “A cross-disciplinary approach is needed to make progress, and this is exactly the type of challenge that CMU's School of Computer Science is designed to tackle.”

Agarwal aims to devise systems that track carbon verifiably at different scales across societal infrastructures. This effort includes using sensing techniques to characterize embodied operational carbon while presenting information in an actionable format.

“Real-time data on carbon emissions from power plants; embedded sensors; connectivity of buildings; vehicles; infrastructure—all provide a better picture of the lifecycle of carbon needed for reduction methods,” Agarwal stated.

Kolter plans to develop machine learning methods integrating optimization processes within models themselves. This process can allow models to leverage benefits from data-driven AI techniques while incorporating known knowledge about physical processes.

“Continued advancements in computing coupled with severe climate change impacts make this project's timing ripe,” Kolter remarked.

Emma Strubell will contribute significantly as well. She joins a second Expeditions project titled NSF Expeditions in Computing: Carbon Connect — An Ecosystem for Sustainable Computing co-led by Harvard University & University of Pennsylvania aiming at sustainable computing foundations.

Limiting global warming per Paris Agreement requires a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 over a 2020 baseline within ICT sectors. To achieve this goal Carbon Connect focuses on reducing computer systems' environmental impact identifying foundational technologies potentially sparking transformation regarding manufacturing allocation consumption advancing responsible sustainable approaches toward technology development Strubell leading applications theme generative AI virtual spaces noted:

“Technological advances like generative AI have potential addressing substantial societal challenges including climate change but come high-carbon footprints needing drastic reduction short-term meeting climate goals necessitating cross-cutting innovations considering inherent tradeoffs alongside industry policymakers collaborations achieving highly collaborative project aims.”

Beyond advancing hardware software datacenter efficiency Carbon Connect intends establishing new standards influencing future energy policy legislation.

Learn more about Expeditions Computing Awards via NSF website.

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