Winton Symposium on green computing

The fourth annual Winton Symposium will be held on 28 September at the University’s Cavendish Laboratory on the theme of ‘Green Computing’. The one-day symposium will cover topics ranging from new materials and architectures for low power consumption computing, to computer-based applications which can benefit our environment.

The proliferation of devices with increasing computing power poses opportunities and threats to how we manage our natural resources. Speakers at the symposium will explore emerging technologies that may alter how we perform computation in the future in an efficient manner, as well as how computing can enable us to do things more efficiently.

The opening speaker for the symposium will be Dr Mike Lynch, founder of Invoke Capital and Autonomy. Autonomy – now part of HP – is a global leader in software that processes human information, or unstructured data. His talk will be ‘The green light for new compute: What will we need all that compute for?’

Professor Andy Hopper, Head of the University’s Computer Laboratory, will discuss how to harness the power of computing technology to generate a better understanding of the Earth and its environment. His talk will cover the consumption of energy by computing and balance this with the numerous benefits that can be achieved.

Dr Krisztián Flautner, former VP of R&D at ARM who now leads ARM's Internet of Things Business Unit, will focus on the challenges and opportunities and the current sate of play in various segments of the Internet of Things in his talk. ARM designs scalable, energy efficient-processors and was voted in 2014 by Forbes as the third most innovative company in the world. The company is also one of Cambridge's most successful and has shipped over 60 billion ARM-based chips, with ARM technology in use in 95% of smartphones.

Other speakers at the event include, Professor Luca Cardelli of Microsoft Research and University of Oxford, Professor Linda Nazar of the University of Waterloo, and Professor Hideo Ohno of Tohoku University.

“As computers become ubiquitous, their power consumption is becoming a significant portion of total global energy demand,” said Dr Nalin Patel, Winton Programme Manager. “This can be mitigated by developing new materials, architectures and applications that can not only reduce power consumption but enable us to do things more efficiently.”

The symposium is organised by Dr Patel and Professor Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics and Director of the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability.

There is no registration fee for the symposium and complimentary lunch and drinks reception will be provided, however due to the large demand for places, participants are required to register on-line for the event. The event is open for all to attend.