Exploring Sustainability in the Computing Sector

We are looking for students interested in the intersection of computer science and climate for two projects: 

Junkyard Computing: By the time you open a new smartphone or laptop, over 80% of the total carbon emissions attributable to the device will have already been emitted. This is because device manufacturing is a carbon intensive process, which makes our tendency to keep upgrading devices one of the most unsustainable aspects of computing.  This summer, we'll scavenge for discarded devices (known as junkyard devices) and study their potential in terms of compute, memory, and battery. We'll use this to assess what type of workloads they would be good for if given a second life!

Solar-Powered Web: Every webpage load has an associated carbon footprint that depends on the contents of the site as well as availability of renewable energy in the grid. Typically, the quality and availability of the website remain the same, and renewable energy is used when possible. This project explores hosting websites from the other direction, relying only on solar power and improving quality and availability within the constraints of a limited energy source. 

If either of these projects interests you, please include 1-2 paragraphs that cover 1) which aspects of the project(s) you are most interested in and why 2) relevant experience in computer science and/or climate studies 3) what you hope to gain from this research experience.