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.

Use of the heat from nuclear reactions to produce electricity has been proven over decades of commercial operation to be a safe and reliable large-scale carbon-free power source.  Advanced reactor designs and fuel cycles are designed to be even safer, more efficient, and produce far less waste than presently deployed commercial reactors.  Unfortunately, due to the historical regulated commercial environment in which the nuclear industry in western democracies has developed, no advanced reactors are allowed to be built and little innovation has been possible to address the primary

WiFi Display, also called Miracast, is an emerging technology that allows a mobile device (source) to duplicate its screen content to an external display (sink) via a peer-to-peer WiFi link. Despite its growing popularity and diverse application scenarios, Miracast involves a host of power hungry operations like video encoding/decoding and WiFi, which can quickly drain off a mobile device’s battery.

We invite you to a free, interdisciplinary conference of presentations and discussions on "Sustainable Science Communication" May 13 and 14, 2015. The event begins with the new documentary Merchants of Doubt and audience discussion beginning at 7 pm May 13 in the elegant Pollock Theater.

With ambitious new “renewable portfolio standards” of 50% in California by 2030 and for 20% of electricity for the entire United States by 2030, both excluding hydroelectric, the power grid faces dramatic challenges in absorbing higher levels of variability, whilst continuing to deliver reliable, cheap energy.  And with the DOE’s recent Wind Power vision indicates a 35% national RPS from wind is possible by 2050, the challenge continues beyond these nearer term goals.