Designing Sustainable ICT Systems

There is (and it remain as such for years to come) a strong societal need for sustainable ICT systems (sustainable computation and sustainable communication) and the labour market needs trained ICT experts that know the challenges of ICT sustainability and how to include sustainability objectives in ICT systems. As there are no known courses inside and outside of the Netherlands, having such a course will put TU Delft in a unique spotlight as an energy-cautious university that takes sustainability into account in teaching curriculum, also in not-so-obvious for the climate domain research fields such as computer science.

The course addresses different topics covered by other courses and unifies them by looking at each of them from the sustainable by design approach, deepening some topics (like green software) or teaching topics not covered at all by other TU Delft CS courses (like sustainable electronics design).

The course will provide a new set of knowledge which is not present in existing electives of CS, DSAIT and CEES programs. Therefore, it is perfectly aligned as it does not repeat any knowledge covered by existing electives, but it bridges compulsory courses from any of the three MSc programs (CS, DSAIT and CEES) in once course, i.e. this elective.

This course aim is to introduce the student to the concept that sustainability should be approached at all layers of ICT system (not only at one domain, like green software or adding solar panels to make energy supply greener for the server farm).