CCIT Seminar: Mitigating Climate Change with In-Network Sustainable Computing in Power Systems

Please join us in November for an interesting talk titled Mitigating Climate Change with In-Network Sustainable Computing in Power Systems! This talk will be offered to us by Subham Sahoo, Assistant Professor at the Department of Energy at Aalborg University. He is also the vice-leader of the research group on Reliability of Power Electronic Converters (ReliaPEC) and has previously been employed as a postdoc in NUS Singapore and has had visiting appointments with MIT and University of Edinburgh over the years.

Abstract:

The explosive demand of AI has pushed electric power systems to their tipping point by outpacing the construction of renewable energy infrastructure. As with many large-scale technology-induced shifts, the current trajectory of (Gen-)AI, with every 1000x increase in its size leading to an improvement of model quality merely by 3%, neglects consideration of negative environmental effects alongside its perceived benefits. Limited regulatory oversight further aggravates this crisis.Going beyond carbon-aware demand management, this seminar will introduce in-network computing performed sustainably, where we will leverage neuromorphic computing principles executed at each edge on a large-scale power systems network. By doing so, we can offload model development and training of AI to be carried out naturally in power systems circuits instead of digital executions that mandate dedicated electric sourcing, cabling and network infrastructure.
This seminar will start with a pedagogic illustration of the fundamentals (in layman terms), key concepts and design theory from the field of computational neuroscience and power systems. Finally, the key theories of in-network computing with its direct and indirect computing-related impact will be discussed in detail.

When? November 12th from 11.00 – 12.00

Where? In 3A08 or online via this link (meeting ID: 340 971 214 383 /passcode: HybTDF)

Picture credits: Nicolas Thomas

CCIT Seminar: An introduction to Carbon 110

Join us on October 8th, where we invite Claus Beier to discuss the use of CCUS (Carbon capture, utilisation and storage) in tackling the climate crisis. Claus Beier is a Professor at the department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen.

Prof. Claus Beier will present the report Carbon 110, where he calls for a cohesive and comprehensive carbon strategy from the government. The guide, which was composed by the Akademiet for Tekniske Videnskaber (ATV) with input from key actors from different disciplines, explores the potential of CCUS techniques (Carbon capture, utilization and storage), whilst arguing they are used ‘as little as possible, as much as necessary’.

When? October 8th, 12.00 - 13.00

Where?  IT University of Copenhagen, Room 4A20 or online via this link (meeting ID: 398 588 834 719/ passcode: 9ZvnB3).

Picture credit: Yann Allegre

CCIT Seminar: Probing the value(s) of energy transitions

Join us for the first CCIT Seminar of the semester, where we invite Julia Kirkegaard, Associate Professor at the Department of Wind and Energy Systems at DTU, to give a talk on the values behind energy transitions.

Abstract:

Associate Professor at DTU Wind and Energy Systems, Julia Kirch Kirkegaard, gives a presentation of her research on socio-technical controversies over the transition to renewable energy. Taking outset in her recent grants, the ERC Starting Grant “Good-by-Devicing – probing how value comes to matter in the energy transition” (2024-2028) and her Sapere Aude grant “The Expertise of Expectations, and the case of PtX” (2024-2027), Julia lays out her perspective on how the ‘good’ of energy transitions is construed and contested. Probing what she coins a ‘Sociology of Devicing’, she uses the cases of energy islands and Power-to-X (PtX) to expose the role and agency of powerful valuation devices developed and used by entrenched networks of expertise in orchestrating energy transitions, construing them as ‘good’ in particular ways. Julia critically exposes how essential devices/design tools have agency in determining which values and concerns come to count and matter (and which do not) for our energy future, which often lies at the root of local opposition and public controversy. While exposing entrenched networks of expertise and their agency, her research offers a hopeful account for potential experimentation with re-devicing the energy transition so broader concerns and values can come to matter in how we orchestrate wide-ranging transitions. This renders it possible to think how we could value energy otherwise, enhancing energy justice.

When? September 27th, 10.00-11.00

Where? IT University of Copenhagen, Room 4A20 or online via this link (meeting ID: 370 900 594 21/ passcode: mvao5Y).

Picture credit: Karsten Wurth

CCIT Seminar: On the Carbon Footprint of Deep Learning

Join us for our next CCIT Seminar where Raghavendra Selvan will give a guest lecture on the sustainability of Deep Learning. Raghavendra Selvan is currently an Assistant Professor (Tenure-track) at Machine Learning (ML) Section, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen (UCPH).

Abstract:

Deep Learning (DL) has transformed several application domains, including computer vision and natural language processing, with new and exciting possibilities in Artificial Intelligence (AI). These advancements have been enabled, and accelerated, by large scale computations on massive data which also translate into increased energy- and carbon- costs. In this work, we take a look at the carbon footprint of DL across domains, present techniques to quantify it and practices that could improve the environmental sustainability of AI. Further, we will look at the notion of Pareto Sustainable AI which considers the three-way trade off between performance, environmental impact and factors impacting social sustainability (such as safety and fairness). 

When? April 30, 2024, 11:00-12:00 CEST

Where? IT University of Copenhagen, Room 3A18 & online via this link(Meeting ID: 398 213 529 191; Passcode: ZGBpX9)

CCIT Seminar: The planetary, datafication and how do we start regenerating the web of life?

Welcome to the next CCIT Seminar where Kristine Samson, Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Arts, Roskilde University, will give a guest lecture on her research titled: “The planetary, datafication and how do we start regenerating the web of life?”

Abstract:

Dipesh Chakrabarty has pointed to the planet as an emergent humanist and existential category. At the same time, the planet is a political orphan and absent from global governance.  And while Earth system sciences are planetary systems pointing to how the planet sustains our lives, it at the same time is dependent on enormous flows of data from measuring tools building on Western epistemologies, and as pointed out by several scholars, an extractive resource management reproducing colonial practices (Crawford, Yusoff). In the presentation I firstly want to discuss the planetary and question the role of datafication by bringing in the many paradoxes related to the planetary and datafication. Secondly, I want to start imagining other planetary futures speculating about how we can start regenerating the web of life from our daily practices. How, for instance, can our ways of producing knowledge at university matter in the regeneration of the web of life? By bringing in the notion of the pluriverse (Escobar, Marisol de la Cadena, Mignolo & Walsh), and by giving earthly examples of reparative and regenerative practices, we will start imagining a planetary future otherwise.

When? March 21, 2024, 12:00-13:00

Where? IT University of Copenhagen, Room 3A18 & online via this link (Meeting ID: 349 031 252 776; Passcode: jXiqxJ)

CCIT Seminar: The significance of gender for climate friendly transportation

Join us when Professor of Urban Planning, Malene Freudendal-Pedersen, Department of Sustainability & Planning, Aalborg University, visits ITU! Malene will give a guest lecture on her research around gender and climate friendly transportation. The lecture is open to all, students, researchers, staff, etc. No sign-up needed. 

Abstract: 

While different sectors have successfully limited CO2 emissions in preventing severe climate change, the transportation sector has remained overly static and stands out as even moving in the wrong direction. This sector is, to a high degree, marked by technocratic transport planning and autologic implementation over the last 100 years. Within the mobilities paradigm, transport is researched as a larger system constituting economic, social and cultural aspects of society, and in this tradition, inequalities, for instance, related to gender, stands out as an important aspect for sustainable transitions. The gender inequality in in relation to who is planned for recurs when we look at who is doing the planning:  it is shown that gender norms shape the way we respond, think and act in relations to a specific topic and the workforce in the transportation sector consist of 80% male employees and even fewer women at the top decision level it has an impact.

When? February 5, 2024, 12:00-13:00

Where? IT University of Copenhagen, room 3A18 & Online via this link (Meeting ID: 348 230 099 805, Passcode: zLqSoF)

CCIT Seminar: Realizing Re-generative Futures: from cyborg trees to smarter greener cities.

Dr. Natalie Gulsrud, Associate Professor at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management (section Landscape Architecture & Planning), University of Copenhagen, will give a talk on December 12th from 12-13h. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: 

We are currently in a moment where society is deeply engaged in understanding the social, economic, and ethical consequences of AI and specifically the rapid advancements of generative AI. Yet critical attention is also deserved to the impacts of AI and generative AI on environmental governance from the urban to the planetary scale. The main aim of this talk is to open a discussion regarding if AI supports or hinders social and ecological resilience. This is done by tracing the development and governance of “smart nature,” and analyzing whose sustainability is prioritized in smart natures and ultimately how the drive for resource optimization is balanced with calls for justice and equity.

This talk draws upon research published in Landscape and Urban Planning, Nature Urban Sustainability, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Springer, and Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability and synthesizes findings from the FORMAS funded VIVA-PLAN project (2019 – 2021) on developing inclusive planning processes for revitalising in-between spaces in residential housing areas for nature conservation, social inclusion and human well-being as well as the NordForsk funded Smarter Greener Cities project (2020 – 2023) which aims to develop and test novel tools and processes for explicitly converging social, ecological, and technological systems (SETS) approaches for improving life in cities.

When? 12/12 from 12h to 13h

Where? Classroom 2A52 and online via this link. 

CCIT Seminar: Green IT? Extractivism, Energy, and IT

Dr. Emilka Skrzypek, Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews will give a talk on November 27th from 12-13h. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: 

Be it renewable energy systems, or digitalisation, technological solutions to climate change are often resource and power intensive. If we want to talk about IT as an element of green transitions, how do we account for the industry’s growing energy demands? And what about the costs and impacts of extractive activities needed to meet the demand for metals required by rapidly expanding IT technology and infrastructure? In this seminar, Dr Emilka Skrzypek from University of St Andrews will consider those questions and take a critical look at some of the claims and terms that feature in conversations about green transitions. 

When? 9/11 from 12h to 13h

Where? Classroom 4A56 and online via this link. 

CCIT Seminar: Making Carbon Valuable: Relations of Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon

Maron Greenleaf, Assistant professor at the department of Anthropology at University of Dartmouth will give a talk on November 9th from 12-13h. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: 

The carbon held in forests has new economic value created in market-based efforts to combat climate change. Individuals, corporations, and other institutions around the world can purchase carbon credits to “offset” their own emissions or otherwise invest in forest carbon—creating a “green” form of capitalism. Yet making forest carbon valuable, I explore, entails not only the standardizing work that other critical scholars have analyzed, but also place-specific relational work that keeps carbon in place in living forests. I explore this work through analysis of a government program in the Brazilian Amazon that made forest carbon—commonly seen as the proper purview of private property—into a public resource redistributed by a nascent environmentally-premised welfare state. In so doing, the talk explores the relations of green capitalism that are reshaping the Brazilian Amazon and other landscapes around the world.

When? 9/11 from 12h to 13h

Where? Auditorium 4 and online via this link 

CCIT Seminar: How 'blue' and 'green' sail together: the link between autonomous navigation and climate change mitigation

Nelson Coelho, Assistant professor at the Centre for Sustainable and Digital Transformation and the Centre for Blue Governance at Aalborg University will give a talk on October 5th at 12. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: Maritime autonomous surface vessels are being designed and tested in various parts of the world, including Denmark. This will eventually lead to a transformation of the shipping industry and reinvent the role of crews and pilots. The introduction of these vessels in the logistics chain incentivizes a renewal of the maritime fleet, bringing about also new propulsion systems with energy efficient engines and different fuel types that are less harmful to the environment. Combining the digitalization of shipping with ecological motivations is a key element in short-sea shipping and inland waterway navigation alternatives that aim at shifting cargo from road to water. It also features in the redevelopment of small and medium-sized port terminals, with the introduction of autonomous vehicles on land that will assist, and eventually replace, dock workers. The talk will present the results of the EU-funded AEGIS project on advanced, efficient, and green waterborne transport systems. This presentation will hopefully prompt reflection on pathways to future collaboration between ITU and AAU on ‘blue tech’ governance.

Where? 3A54 or online via this link.

When? 5/10 from 12h to 13h

CCIT Seminar: Relegitimising the voluntary carbon market: promises of digital monitoring, reporting and verification with Kirstine Lund

This autumn, CCIT is launching its Seminar Series, with at least monthly talks. The talks will happen offline at ITU, but it will also be possible to attend online. Kirstine Lund, Ph.D. Fellow at the department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO) at the University of Copenhagen, will kick off the series on september 19th at 12. The event is open to both staff and students and no registration is required.

Abstract: The voluntary carbon market faces a crisis of trust due to accusations of greenwashing, just as companies worldwide increasingly rely on it to achieve their net-zero targets. To tackle these criticisms and rebuild trust, digital technologies are proposed as potential game-changers in the market. Among these technologies, specifically those capable of enhancing and automating monitoring, reporting (MRV) and verification of nature-based carbon projects, are gaining attention. In my research, I explore the emerging visions and imaginaries around digital MRV among stakeholders in the voluntary carbon market. I propose that digital MRV can be characterized as a form of non-disruptive disruption. This means that while digital MRV promise to restore trust in the market, the application of the technologies only addresses a fraction of the criticisms raised against the market. Simultaneously, despite visions of large-scale nature restoration, digital MRV relies on a business model centered on carbon offsetting, thus legitimizing continued emissions, which remains the greatest threat against the stability of ecosystems.

Where? Auditorium 3 or online via this link.

When? 19/9 from 12h to 13h