What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and Pedagogy
Internet and Communication Technology/electrical and electronic equipment (ICT/EEE) form the bedrock of today’s knowledge economy. This increasingly interconnected web of products, processes, services, and infrastructure is often invisible to the user, as are the resource costs behind them. This eco...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Data & Policy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2632324920000127/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811156476602875904 |
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| author | I. S. Mian D. Twisleton D. A. Timm |
| author_facet | I. S. Mian D. Twisleton D. A. Timm |
| author_sort | I. S. Mian |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Internet and Communication Technology/electrical and electronic equipment (ICT/EEE) form the bedrock of today’s knowledge economy. This increasingly interconnected web of products, processes, services, and infrastructure is often invisible to the user, as are the resource costs behind them. This ecosystem of machine-to-machine and cyber-physical-system technologies has a myriad of (in)direct impacts on the lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. As key determinants of tomorrow’s digital world, academic institutions are critical sites for exploring ways to mitigate and/or eliminate negative impacts. This Report is a self-deliberation provoked by the question How do we create more resilient and healthier computer science departments: living laboratories for teaching and learning about resource-constrained computing, computation, and communication? Our response for University College London (UCL) Computer Science is to reflect on how, when, and where resources—energy, (raw) materials including water, space, and time—are consumed by the building (place), its occupants (people), and their activities (pedagogy). This perspective and attendant first-of-its-kind assessment outlines a roadmap and proposes high-level principles to aid our efforts, describing challenges and difficulties hindering quantification of the Department’s resource footprint. Qualitatively, we find a need to rematerialise the ICT/EEE ecosystem: to reveal the full costs of the seemingly intangible information society by interrogating the entire life history of paraphernalia from smartphones through servers to underground/undersea cables; another approach is demonstrating the corporeality of commonplace phrases and Nature-inspired terms such as artificial intelligence, social media, Big Data, smart cities/farming, the Internet, the Cloud, and the Web. We sketch routes to realising three interlinked aims: cap annual power consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, become a zero waste institution, and rejuvenate and (re)integrate the natural and built environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:52:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1a2b7cf57fa744759a76662c46256bb2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2632-3249 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:52:16Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Data & Policy |
| spelling | doaj.art-1a2b7cf57fa744759a76662c46256bb22023-03-09T12:31:28ZengCambridge University PressData & Policy2632-32492020-01-01210.1017/dap.2020.12What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and PedagogyI. S. Mian0D. Twisleton1D. A. Timm2Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United KingdomDepartment of Computer Science, University College London, London, United KingdomDepartment of Computer Science, University College London, London, United KingdomInternet and Communication Technology/electrical and electronic equipment (ICT/EEE) form the bedrock of today’s knowledge economy. This increasingly interconnected web of products, processes, services, and infrastructure is often invisible to the user, as are the resource costs behind them. This ecosystem of machine-to-machine and cyber-physical-system technologies has a myriad of (in)direct impacts on the lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. As key determinants of tomorrow’s digital world, academic institutions are critical sites for exploring ways to mitigate and/or eliminate negative impacts. This Report is a self-deliberation provoked by the question How do we create more resilient and healthier computer science departments: living laboratories for teaching and learning about resource-constrained computing, computation, and communication? Our response for University College London (UCL) Computer Science is to reflect on how, when, and where resources—energy, (raw) materials including water, space, and time—are consumed by the building (place), its occupants (people), and their activities (pedagogy). This perspective and attendant first-of-its-kind assessment outlines a roadmap and proposes high-level principles to aid our efforts, describing challenges and difficulties hindering quantification of the Department’s resource footprint. Qualitatively, we find a need to rematerialise the ICT/EEE ecosystem: to reveal the full costs of the seemingly intangible information society by interrogating the entire life history of paraphernalia from smartphones through servers to underground/undersea cables; another approach is demonstrating the corporeality of commonplace phrases and Nature-inspired terms such as artificial intelligence, social media, Big Data, smart cities/farming, the Internet, the Cloud, and the Web. We sketch routes to realising three interlinked aims: cap annual power consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, become a zero waste institution, and rejuvenate and (re)integrate the natural and built environments.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2632324920000127/type/journal_articlerejuvenate and (re)integrate the natural and built environmentsrematerialising the information societyresource-constrained computing, computation, and communicationresponsible research and innovationzero waste institutionenvironmental accountingwaste reductiondata centre managementIT infrastructure lifecycleenvironmental policy |
| spellingShingle | I. S. Mian D. Twisleton D. A. Timm What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and Pedagogy Data & Policy rejuvenate and (re)integrate the natural and built environments rematerialising the information society resource-constrained computing, computation, and communication responsible research and innovation zero waste institution environmental accounting waste reduction data centre management IT infrastructure lifecycle environmental policy |
| title | What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and Pedagogy |
| title_full | What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and Pedagogy |
| title_fullStr | What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and Pedagogy |
| title_full_unstemmed | What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and Pedagogy |
| title_short | What is the resource footprint of a computer science department? Place, people, and Pedagogy |
| title_sort | what is the resource footprint of a computer science department place people and pedagogy |
| topic | rejuvenate and (re)integrate the natural and built environments rematerialising the information society resource-constrained computing, computation, and communication responsible research and innovation zero waste institution environmental accounting waste reduction data centre management IT infrastructure lifecycle environmental policy |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2632324920000127/type/journal_article |
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