LOCOS Seminar – Educating for Low-Carbon Computing: Designing a Cross-Layer Sustainable Computing Course in an HPC Curriculum with PedrocTrancoso

Low Carbon Computing Seminar

Pedro Petersen Moura Trancoso of Chalmers University of Technology will deliver a LOCOS seminar: Designing a Cross-Layer Sustainable Computing Course in an HPC Curriculum.

The rapid growth of computational demand, combined with the carbon cost of device production and the end of Moore’s Law scaling, makes low-carbon computing a first-order engineering challenge. Achieving “frugal computing” — doing more with less energy — requires reasoning across the full system stack.

This talk presents the design and evolution of a master-level Sustainable Computing course within the High-Performance Computer Systems programme at Chalmers University of Technology. The course integrates circuit-level power mechanisms, architectural techniques, operating system and runtime strategies, and data centre efficiency, supported by hands-on energy measurement and simulation.

Professor Trancoso will discuss both the pedagogical rationale and the challenges encountered: polarized student perceptions of depth, aligning assessment with cross-layer learning, and balancing breadth with technical rigor. The talk aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on how computing curricula can prepare engineers to treat energy and carbon as first-class system constraints.

See past and future LOCOS Seminars at https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/computing/research/researchthemes/lowcarbon/