Workshop Details

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (2008) indicates that buildings account for as much as 40 percent of energy use in industrialized countries. Data centers (computing facilities with electronic equipment for data processing, storage, and communications networking) are especially inefficient users of energy. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by data centers worldwide exceeds the total emissions of Argentina and the Netherlands combined (Kaplan et al., 2008). In light of such issues, the information technology (IT) industry is looking to advanced power management hardware, smart cooling systems, virtualization tools, and dense server configurations to reduce energy consumption. Large scale sensor networks used in the design of these advanced systems are inherently graph theoretical.  Part of Reconnect will be devoted to understanding these sensor networks.

A second related area will examine the development of a truly “smart” electrical grid. The Smart Grid will include smart sensors and controls throughout the transmission and distribution system and a broad communication platform for two-way communications to move data and electricity between utilities and consumers. Smart Grid consumers will have smart meters that can track energy consumption, monitor individual power circuits in the home, control smart appliances, and actively manage energy use.  Game-theory models, multi-agent based models, decision-support and optimization tools, and security and privacy tools will be considered.

A third topic will explore policies for balancing individual interests with the common good to avoid an eventual “tragedy of the commons”. In this area, game theory can model the interactions of multiple agents and show the effects of competing interests. Economic incentives may influence whether a country or a company is motivated to enter an agreement and then abide by it.