IEEE Future Tech Forum • April 2021
The Climate Change Roundtable was a complimentary special 90-minute, virtual event, held on 30 April 2021. During the event, moderated by Celia Desmond, our two Keynote Speakers (Charles Despins and Jaafar Elmirghani) and invited panelists (Louise Krug, Luis Neves, and Volker Ziegler) commented on climate change and associated threats, discussed potential ideas for resolutions, and highlighted developments/initiatives that help contribute to the goal of combating climate change.
This Climate Change Roundtable is an IEEE Future Tech Forum event, brought to you by IEEE Future Directions.
Available on-demand: click here to access the event recording.
Event Moderator: Celia Desmond
Celia was 2016-1017 IEEE Division III Director. She has held numerous IEEE positions including, Secretary, IEEE VP – Technical Activities, ComSoc President, IEEE Canada President, VP Technology and Engineering Management Society, and Project Director for ComSoc’s Wireless Engineering certification.
Celia holds MSc. Engineering, B.Sc. Mathematics & Psychology, Ontario Teaching Certificate, and PMP certification. Celia has taught kindergarten, high school, and at 5 universities. She is the author of 2 Project Management books.
Keynote Speakers:
Charles Despins | The IEEE Sustainable ICT initiative |
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Jaafar Elmirghani | Sustainability of Communication Networks and Data Centres |
Invited Speakers:
Louise Krug | Climate change and telecommunications |
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Luis Neves | The ICT sector as an enabler for a more sustainable world |
Volker Ziegler | 6G technology and architecture to foster global sustainability impact |
Speaker: Dr. Charles Despins
Talk Title: The IEEE Sustainable ICT initiative
Abstract: Climate change and the digital revolution have been described as respectively as humanity’s biggest challenge in the 21st century and the most significant transformation in human history. Recognizing this, the IEEE created its Sustainable Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Initiative to leverage the expertise of its 400,000+ members in stimulating ICT development and adoption for the fight against climate change. The initiative has led to the creation of new standards to assess and limit ICT greenhouse gas emissions and is also focused on education and publications.
From 2003 to 2016, he was also founding President & CEO of Prompt, a university-industry research consortium which is a now highly recognized collaborative research actor in Québec. He rejoined academia in 2016 and is currently professor of electrical engineering after serving as vice-president – research & partnerships and Dean of Research at École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), Université du Québec.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from McGill University in Montreal, as well as M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, also in electrical engineering, from Carleton University in Ottawa. He was the recipient of the (1993) Best Paper of the Year award in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He was named in 2005 a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and was the recipient in 2006 of the Outstanding Engineer Award from IEEE Canada for (citation) “excellence in the electrical engineering profession in both academia and industry”.
He has been the co-Chair of the IEEE Sustainable ICT initiative since its inception and a strong advocate on this theme for more than a decade.
Speaker: Professor Jafaar Elmirghani
Talk Title: Sustainability of Communication Networks and Data Centres
Abstract: ICT has a carbon footprint comparable to that of the global aviation industry. Unlike the global aviation industry, traffic in communication networks continues to grow at 30% to 40% per year, thus doubling every two years and increasing potentially by factors of 30x in 10 years and 1000x in 20 years, which is not sustainable. This talk addresses the measures that are currently being introduced to reduce the carbon footprint of networks and data centers. It also outlines 9 new standards introduced by IEEE in this area.
Speaker: Ms. Louise Krug
Talk Title: Climate change and telecommunications
Abstract: Extreme weather events cause major problems for communications networks, the very networks that emergency services rely on during emergencies. Given these threats, BT has been taking action for over 25 years to reduce its environmental impact, but ever growing traffic levels present a fundamental problem. There is also a feedback cycle – climate change drives need for increasing communications and power infrastructure which in turn can drive climate change. This talk will address some of these issues and solutions.
Speaker: Mr. Luis Neves
Talk Title: The ICT sector as an enabler for a more sustainable world
Abstract: By 2030, the world can be a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous one, with greater opportunities for individuals everywhere, if we are able to harness the enabling potential of digital technologies. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector can disrupt business-as-usual and radically reshape the way we live, as well as reduce the impact that continuous economic growth has on the health of our planet. Until now, there has been a strong correlation between economic growth and increased energy consumption but the long-term work of GeSI has proven that the ICT sector is a central pillar in the response to climate change as it can decouple economic growth from emissions growth and help accelerate efforts to a build a more sustainable world.
Prior to GeSI, Luis worked at Deutsche Telekom for over 15 years holding positions such as Head of Sustainable Development and Environment, VP of Corporate Responsibility and Chief Sustainability and Climate Protection Officer. Luis has also held positions and played relevant roles at European and international levels in organisations, such as the UN Global Compact Lead Group, Econsense -the German Sustainability Association, World Resources Forum Association and UNFCCC Momentum for Change Initiative.
Luis was born in Portugal and obtained a degree in History from the University of Lisbon.
Speaker: Dr. Volker Ziegler
Talk Title: 6G technology and architecture to foster global sustainability impact
Abstract: The post-pandemic future will offer tremendous opportunity and challenge from the transformation of the human experience, this is the time for a 6G vision to expand human experience and foster sustainability impact. Our vision is about the physical world and the digital worlds deeply intertwined; human biological systems seamlessly coupled and new sensory and cognitive dimensions for 2030 and beyond. We will need to leverage performance and value indicators for sustainability from 6G era use case families. Creating and consuming new digital worlds, augmenting our intelligence, and controlling our automatons can help tackle global sustainability goals such as needed action on climate change. At Nokia Bell Labs we have successfully started our 6G research on technology for communications in the 2030s: to customize the air-interface framework, expand the use of spectrum to higher bands, and to co-design systems for communication and sensing. Novel architecture concepts for the 6G era will be driven by a decomposition of the architecture into platform, functions, orchestration, and specialization aspects.
Currently, Volker exercises a leadership role with Nokia Bell Labs in 6G research and he leads Nokia digital transformation initiatives aimed at exploring and leveraging innovations with customers and partners in the fledgling ecosystem for the 6G era.
In his previous role as Head of 5G Leadership and Chief Architect of Nokia Mobile Networks, Volker played a key role in defining Nokia e2e 5G offering and positioning Nokia strongly in 5G and associated innovation, technologies, and architecture. Prior to this, Volker served in Head of Strategy roles of the company and as Head of the North East region, driving market share gain in many key markets, including Scandinavia, Russia, and Turkey.
Available on-demand: click here to access the event recording.