About the clean-IT Course Seriesclean-IT

Efficiency in computer science often refers to the runtime or memory usage, that a certain algorithm needs to produce an output. However, efficiency can also describe the amount of energy, that is consumed by the hardware during the runtime of an algorithm.

This course explains the relevant computer architecture components, as well as different coding techniques, that allow computer scientists to design and program energy efficient algorithms. Participants will learn how intrinsic functions work and how they can be applied to an algorithm to reduce its energy consumption. In addition, the course presents a hands-on approach to measuring energy consumption of programs using the Intel VTune Profiler tool. In contrast to the existing clean-IT courses on openHPI, this course provides a deeper dive into specific, energy efficient, architecture coding techniques.

This two-week free course is about resource-efficient software engineering. We'll discuss how to apply climate-friendly decisions and actions along the life cycle of software development and their context. In the first part of the course, we will address the area of tension between climate and digitization. We will look at how IT causes CO2 emissions and how IT technologies can save CO2 emissions. What are the possibilities in software development to make processes more sustainable? What are the main problems in software development? How can they be solved? While the first part is theory oriented, the second part will be practical and will have specific examples. Therefore, we will give you some detailed insights into programming resource-efficient software.

Digitalization is a game changer in the pursuit of a sustainable future. The latest digital technologies and applications like cloud, AI, and mobile devices enable us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and reduce carbon emissions in many sectors. Yet computer systems themselves have an immense energy requirement for their countless devices, data centers, applications and global networks. To effectively reduce the carbon footprint of digitalization, it is necessary to apply algorithmic efficiency and sustainability by design as guiding principles in digital engineering. The clean-IT Forum is the international platform to exchange ideas, recent research findings and applications to make digital technologies more energy-efficient.