Winning Green Computing Proposals Announced

The CSCI @ U-M Unit Funding program selection committee chose the following nine green computing proposals as recipients of Unit Funding grants:

Round 3

• College of Pharmacy – ITS, Ajit Naik
  Utilize a shared file server service rather than locally managed, departmental user file space and implement an effective power management scheme. This will reduce operating and cooling requirements for local file service and minimize unnecessary personal computer on-time, preventing productivity loss, thereby reducing net power consumption.
  
  
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Jeff Ringenberg
  Create a service for mobile internet and electronic ink devices to increase student engagement by allowing them to review and study gateway exam material "on the go." The service will experiment with new methods of learning and evaluation, dramatically reduce the use of paper and printer ink, gather instant feedback on student performance, and reduce the need for high-powered desktop computers by moving course content to low-powered, portable devices.
  
  
• Medical Education, Heather Tarvis and Chelle Robins
  Incorporate "smart" power strips into workstation setups in order to reduce electricity consumption from devices that draw an idle current when shut off. They will measure the net energy usage change attributable to use of the smart power strips.
  
  
• Medical School Dean's Office, Suzanne Weintraub, M.B.A.
  Implement a program that combines training, incentive, and software tools to decrease energy usage and printing within the Medical School Dean's Office with the intention of modifying certain behaviors and spreading green awareness.
  
  
• Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute (MBNI), Manhong Dai
  Establish multiuser workstations at individual computers in order to utilize idle resources and save money on hardware, while saving the energy required to run multiple computers. For example, connecting two keyboards, two mice and two monitors to one desktop and having two users log in and work independently, therefore resulting in the saving of the energy required to run multiple computers.

Round 2

• Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Theodore J. Iwashyna, MD, PhD
  Design a secure network system that reduces the need for many of the isolated, stand-alone access machines that exist on campus, which will decrease total energy consumption.
  
  
• Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute (MBNI), Manhong Dai
  Create a solution that will allow the turn-on and shutdown of a set of computers based on system load, so that computers will turn off when idle or after jobs complete, and turn on automatically if there is a need. Read more . . .
  
  
• School of Natural Science and the Environment, Phil Ray
  Encourage staff and faculty to power down their computers by implementing software to shorten computer boot-up times.

Round 1

• College of Engineering, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, Faye Ogasawara
  Demonstrate the feasibility of using a campus-wide virtual server service, thus removing older equipment and supporting a sustainable future by minimizing hardware and space of high performance computing research needs.