The U.S. National Science Foundation announced it is granting $12 million in funds for a project to explore ways to ‘decarbonize’ computation.
The University of Chicago is a key partner in the project, known as the National Science Foundation Expeditions in Computing for Computational Decarbonization of Societal Infrastructures at Mesoscales. It is led by UMass-Amherst and seeks to develop the field of computational decarbonization, or CoDec—a new branch of computer science and engineering that applies data-driven approaches to automate decarbonization across the electrical grid, the built environment, transportation and even computing itself.
The award was announced as part of the 2024 CISE Expedition Program by the National Science Foundation. The Expeditions in Computing program recognizes pioneering endeavors poised to make profound impacts on both scientific understanding and societal advancement.
The CoDec Expedition aims to address the urgent need for decarbonization in the face of escalating energy demands driven by rapidly expanding industries such as data centers, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles. By developing the field of computational decarbonization, the project looks to optimize and reduce the lifecycle carbon emissions of complex infrastructure systems across various domains, including computing, transportation, and the electric power grid.
“All technologists and technology companies must take responsibility for the sustainability impact of their invention,” said Andrew A. Chien, the William Eckhardt Distinguished Service Professor of Computer Science, who will lead the UChicago part of the project. “This project is a terrific opportunity to address key environmental sustainability challenges that the extraordinary success of computing has created.”
A multidisciplinary effort
The University of Chicago team aims to explore computing and economic issues in speeding grid decarbonization and reducing lifecycle carbon in computing devices.
“The power grid is facing huge challenges to decarbonize, and data centers need new capabilities to help, not hinder, progress,” said Chien.
Chien will work alongside UChicago colleagues John Birge, the Hobart W. Williams Distinguished Service Professor of Operations Management at the Booth School of Business; Ali Hortaçsu, the Ralph and Mary Otis Isham Professor in the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics. Together, they will spearhead efforts to tackle the pressing challenge of decarbonization with a perspective that blends computing, power grids, markets, and device ecosystems.
UChicago’s contributions to the CoDec Expedition will feature a multidisciplinary research agenda spanning computing and economics in multiple dimensions. One thrust will continue a longstanding research interest of Chien and Birge: understanding the intricate interplay between data centers and the power grid, crucial for expediting grid decarbonization. The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) power demands has created global concern about the stability of the power grids, and the growth’s environmental consequences.