Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, with global consequences affecting the natural environment, basic livelihoods and nearly every sector of human activity. The presentation will briefly review the current scientific understandings that define climate change as a critical threat, and summarize where we stand in the enormous task of limiting global greenhouse gas emissions. This will be followed by an examination of the principal economic and policy tools that can be brought to bear to address the problem, with an emphasis on putting a price on carbon as a key option.

As Germany completes the closure of its last nuclear power plants, Sweden is looking to build new nuclear in light of climate change and energy security concerns. In this talk, Jessica will discuss the unique role that nuclear energy can play in balancing a low-carbon electric grid and decarbonizing the global energy system. This talk will focus on both the opportunities and challenges of new nuclear technologies, and explore how policy can bring down the costs and expand access to the benefits.

Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit joins Dr. Leah Stokes and Nikayla Jefferson for a conversation about Not Too Late, a new anthology edited by Solnit that changes the climate story from despair to possibility. Solnit is the author of twenty books on a variety of topics, including feminism, the environment, western and Indigenous history, politics, and art. After the conversation, there will be a book signing with Rebecca Solnit.

Research, particularly on the "discovery" end of the R&O spectrum, is complex and easily misunderstood. Scientific advance doesn't always precede, it often follows, engineering advance. Answering questions isn't always the goal, finding questions often is. We don't always seek to strengthen conventional wisdom, sometimes we seek to surprise it. What if we could rethink research so that its nurturing, through policy and management, harmonizes with its nature?

Feeding humanity puts enormous environmental pressure on our planet. Most studies focused on this critical issue have addressed it piecemeal, one group of foods or one environmental pressure at a time. I will share results from our recently published work compiling vast data on greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, habitat disturbance and nutrient pollution generated by 99% of total reported production of freshwater, marine and terrestrial foods (crops, livestock, fisheries, and aquaculture). We map these pressures to produce the first ever global ‘footprint’ of food production.

The science-to-product gap for hard technology is real. Our current innovation centers —within academia, corporate R&D, and startups—are not consistently translating promising science into commercially viable products with the potential for scalable impact. Academic research institutions are optimized for scientific discovery, but materials and manufacturing technologies can require years of system engineering and process development to mature.

The debate regarding whether global warming is human caused is active and important.  Cunningham addresses many of the claims on both sides and displays many of the graphics that those interested in today’s climate control issues and their historical impact should explore to form their own opinion. This historical argument on science that will impact our world needs to be investigated by the public at large. Cunningham encourages the public to form their own opinions. He will shares his opinions and answer questions.

In 2007, Barroso and Ho ̈lzle presented a case for energy-proportional computing that has transformed the design and energy-efficiency of computer servers and modern data centers. However, their original definition does not characterize the energy-efficiency profiles of recent highly-configurable servers, resulting in non-intuitive "super-proportional" behavior. In this talk, I introduce new definitions of "ideal" energy-proportional computing targeting both the design of new servers and optimal operation of existing ones.

For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas; in just a few more decades, the world's population will exceed 9 billion, 70 percent of whom will live in cities. Enabling those cities to deliver services effectively, efficiently, and sustainably while keeping their citizens safe, healthy, prosperous, and well-informed will be among the most important undertakings in this century.