The document is a presentation on integrating sustainability into research through the use of sensors and low-power technologies. It discusses the importance of energy consumption and provides practical demonstrations of sensor applications while emphasizing the benefits of careful design to reduce environmental impact. The conclusion highlights that making thoughtful choices in technology use can help mitigate the ecological footprint of research activities.

1. Research and GreenICT
Dr. Andrew Thomas and
Venkatesh Vijay
BCU/TEE, April 2013

2. What are we going to do?
This is what we hope to cover in 1½ hours:
• An introduction to sensors and their uses.
• Some demos of sensors and graphics.
• A talk about being ‘green’ in research.
• A tour of the TEE/BCU workshop.

3. What are we going to do?
This is what we hope to cover in 1½ hours:
• An introduction to sensors and their uses.
• Some demos of sensors and graphics.
• A talk about being ‘green’ in research.
• A tour of the TEE/BCU workshop.

4. What are we going to do?
This is what we hope to cover in 1½ hours:
• An introduction to sensors and their uses.
• Some demos of sensors and graphics.
• A talk about being ‘green’ in research.
• A tour of the TEE/BCU workshop.

5. What are we going to do?
This is what we hope to cover in 1½ hours:
• An introduction to sensors and their uses.
• Some demos of sensors and graphics.
• A talk about being ‘green’ in research.
• A tour of the TEE/BCU workshop.

6. Sensors for intelligent environments

7. Environment sensing

8. Ubiquitous sensing
Gait (walking)
Home power use
Physiological

9. Plains, trains and automobiles

10. Robots and avatars

11. Augmented and virtual reality

12. Some practical demonstrations
And now for thirty minutes of demonstrations:
• A virtual laboratory prototype based on 3D
parametric graphics.
• A 3D instruction manual using RFID, based on
a ‘thingyverse’ model.
• A few robots and a sensor visualization.

13. What about Watts?
Some insights into
power and research

14. Watt’s power all about?
One Watt is simply use of one Joule of energy by
a circuit, per second. A kiloWatt hour is therefore
(Watts*hours)/1000. Watts can be calculated as:
Voltage (Volts)
Power (Watts)
W = V I
Current (Amps)
Note: A Joule is the amount of energy used when one ampere is
passed through a one ohm resistance for one second.

15. How does that help GreenICT?
That tells us three things we can change to
improve power consumption:

16. How does that help GreenICT?
That tells us three things we can change to
improve power consumption:
Volts

17. How does that help GreenICT?
That tells us three things we can change to
improve power consumption:
Volts
Amps

18. How does that help GreenICT?
That tells us three things we can change to
improve power consumption:
Volts
Amps
Time

19. Varying voltage requirements

20. Prototyping low‐power sensors

21. How guilty should we feel?

22. How green is rapid prototyping?
To give you an idea of how much power
3D printing uses, we made this plastic
tag for you. Some stats:
•
•
•
•
•
It weighs c.8g and uses c.10g of plastic to make.
Each one uses c.1MJ of 3D printer power.
The plastic embodied energy is c.0.83MJ.
A plastic carrier bag embodied energy: 0.5MJ.
For comparison: 1kWh is equivalent to 3.6MJ.

23. A different view
Does everyone need
to reduce power
consumption?

24. A different view

25. Power
What is sustainable power use?
Rich
Poor

26. Power
What is sustainable power use?
Sensible consumption
Rich
Poor

27. Power
What is sustainable power use?
How?
Sensible consumption
Rich
Poor

28. Power
What is sustainable power use?
How?
Sensible consumption
Rich
Poor

29. Power
What is sustainable power use?
How?
Sensible consumption
Rich
Poor

30. Power and learning
• A 10W solar panel costs c.£50 in UK
• Low power devices:
 Raspberry pi
 Tablet (Android, iPad, etc.)
• Green Learning:
 220 million Android tablets given to rural Indian students!

31. Power and learning
• A 10W solar panel costs c.£50 in UK
• Low power devices:
 Raspberry pi
 Tablet (Android, iPad, etc.)
• Green Learning:
 220 million Android tablets given to rural Indian students!

32. Power and learning
• A 10W solar panel costs c.£50 in UK
• Low power devices:
 Raspberry pi
 Tablet (Android, iPad, etc.)
• Green Learning:
 220 million Android tablets given to rural Indian students!

33. Conclusions
• Being ‘green’ is largely a matter of making the
right choices, but sometimes the right choice
isn’t the most obvious one.
• It can include using mobile devices and other
low‐power systems, rather than power hungry
PCs, where appropriate.
• Turning things off when not in use saves power,
whether sensors or peripherals (e.g. PC
displays).

34. Conclusions
• Being ‘green’ is largely a matter of making the
right choices, but sometimes the right choice
isn’t the most obvious one.
• It can include using mobile devices and other
low‐power systems, rather than power hungry
PCs, where appropriate.
• Turning things off when not in use saves power,
whether sensors or peripherals (e.g. PC
displays).

35. Conclusions
• Being ‘green’ is largely a matter of making the
right choices, but sometimes the right choice
isn’t the most obvious one.
• It can include using mobile devices and other
low‐power systems, rather than power hungry
PCs, where appropriate.
• Turning things off when not in use saves
power, whether sensors or peripherals (e.g. PC
displays).

36. Conclusions
• Careful design of sensors and systems can
significantly reduce power use and extend
operating times.
• So, if we act sensibly we can move toward
GreenICT in research…
• … which means we won’t have to feel so
guilty about our environmental footprint 

37. Conclusions
• Careful design of sensors and systems can
significantly reduce power use and extend
operating times.
• So, if we act sensibly we can move toward
GreenICT in research…
• … which means we won’t have to feel so
guilty about our environmental footprint 

38. Conclusions
• Careful design of sensors and systems can
significantly reduce power use and extend
operating times.
• So, if we act sensibly we can move toward
GreenICT in research…
• … which means we won’t have to feel so
guilty about our environmental footprint 

39. The end
Thanks for listening 
Any questions?