University of Glasgow teaching staff hope that new initiatives will lead to a greater awareness of climate impact among students.
The University is set to become the first academic institution to make teaching about the environmental impact of digital technologies a mandatory part of its undergraduate Computing Science curriculum. Starting this academic year, BSc students at the School of Computing Science will be involved in discussions and research on the environmental effects of their field, with these topics also being integrated into school assessments to encourage continuous engagement. This initiative is part of the School’s broader strategy to instil a culture of heightened awareness and concern among students about the environmental implications of their chosen field.
The School’s decision comes at a crucial juncture, as it has become increasingly clear that the current trajectory of the global computing industry is highly unsustainable if attempts to meet the primary goals set by the 2015 Paris Agreement are to be successful. At its existing rate, by 2040, computing could be responsible for over half of the emissions that can be acceptably generated to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, making it the primary source of global emissions. Whilst other sectors will undoubtedly continue to produce high levels of emissions, the prospect that computing could consume so much of this available budget highlights the imminent need for change in the sector and for greater research into the possibilities for reducing computing’s carbon output.
The School’s Low Carbon and Sustainable Computing (LOCOS) research group has been very active in this area, continually illuminating these significant risks and conducting extensive research into areas related to the sustainability of computing devices. Their research has been directed at developing technologies to extend the functional lifespan of devices and increase their capabilities without a simultaneous rise in energy consumption. Their ultimate ambition is to eventually help the sector produce computing devices with virtually infinite usable lifespans that also consume much less energy than current computing resources.
This emphasis on extending the longevity of computing devices reflects the fact that, if computing science is to confront the climate crisis productively, combating the current insatiable nature of consumption patterns and creating devices that perform well for longer will be essential. Currently, the energy consumption involved in powering computers and data centres forms around 70% of the emissions arising from the computing sector, while the manufacturing processes involved in their production contribute to around 25%. However, the environmental impact of the production processes is further exacerbated by the pervasive consumer culture of replacing devices long before they reach the end of their usable lifespan.
These unwanted devices, such as laptops and smartphones, are notoriously challenging and costly to recycle, being formed of complex layers of metals, plastics and chemicals. As a result, increasing the energy efficiency of the devices will only have a minimal positive impact if consumer patterns persist and the production of computing devices endures at its current rapid and consistent rate. The School’s research group insists that greater communication and collaboration between research and the wider industry must occur for these efforts to be fruitful, commenting that computing devices must be reconceptualised as a finite rather than limitless recourse in the public consciousness.
The presence of these pressing issues within the sector undoubtedly led to the decision to embed sustainability-focused course material into the undergraduate curriculum. The head of the LOCOS research group, Professor Wim Vanderbauwhede, had previously delivered a series of lectures to students on the sustainability of computing. Moreover, he led the push for this significant change in the curriculum, which will contribute to a much greater awareness amongst students. This decision was approved by the College of Science and Engineering’s Learning and Teaching Committee after close consultation with the University’s students and staff and with academics in external institutions. The updated tailored curriculum will aim to equip students with a greater understanding of the importance of confronting computing’s global carbon output.
By encouraging sustained engagement with this topic, the School hopes to inspire future generations of computer scientists to continue to spread awareness and to become involved in this critical research’s future. In response to its integration into the curriculum, Professor Vanderbauwhede echoed this point, asserting: “Rethinking our approach to education is one way to help ensure that the next generation of computing scientists, who will be increasingly impacted by the effects of the climate crisis, can be equipped with tools to help them tackle it.”
The current research of Kathleen West, a PhD student in the School of Computing Science, illustrates that the School’s existing efforts to increase awareness have already encouraged future research. She has been focussing her work in the area of low-carbon and sustainable computing, and cited lectures by Professor Vanderbauwhede during her graduate apprenticeship degree as a key influence on this later decision. This is undoubtedly encouraging when thinking about the impact that exposing a much higher volume of students to the importance of these research areas could have on future developments in the sector.
The changes to the undergraduate core curriculum are one element of what could be numerous changes, as the School is additionally seeking to incorporate sustainability- focused material into advanced courses and postgraduate programmes. They have announced that, by early next year, an advanced course on scalable and sustainable cloud computing will be available to students for the first time. This course has already proven popular, reaching maximum enrolment in only a couple of hours, indicating an equally strong desire for a greater focus on sustainability amongst students, too. It is hoped that this decision will function as a catalyst for other universities in the UK to adopt similar approaches that prioritise teaching about the environmental implications of the field within computing science degrees. Faced with rapidly rising temperatures and sea-levels while witnessing regions confront the real-time consequences of global heating, it is becoming ever clearer that immediate change in every sector, especially one with such significant impact, is desperately needed.
