<p>Kirk Pruhs is a leader in the area of "green computing", the study of algorithms that treat energy as an expensive resource. Take a look at <a href="http://www.dagstuhl.de/mat/Files/11/11091/11091.PruhsKirk.Slides.pdf">these slides</a> and  <a href="http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~kirk/papers/sigactreview.pdf">this survey</a> by Sandy Irani and Pruhs.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-11T05:05:13.427Z
2012-08-11T05:05:13.427Z
arnab
<p>I'm sure there are quite a few, but here's one. The "standard" book on Kolmogorov complexity by Li &amp; Vitanyi has a chapter on physics, information and computation. The part dealing with energy goes back to the likes of von Neumann and Landauer.</p>

<p>The book looks at energy dissipation from the TCS point of view. Basically, advances in the miniaturization and mobilization of devices will at some point require almost dissipationless computing. It seems that there are no physical laws that require reversible computation to dissipate energy. The book looks briefly at some physical implementations of reversible computers that are theoretically possible. There's also a logical model: the reversible Turing machine.</p>

<p>In addition to Li &amp; Vitanyi, you can take a look at [1] and [2]. You might also be interested in the question <a href="https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/271/is-there-an-abstract-machine-that-can-capture-power-consumption">Is there an abstract machine that can capture power consumption?</a> on CS.SE.</p>

<hr>

<p>[1] R. Landauer. Irreversibility and heat generation in the computing process. IBM J. Res. Develop., 5:183–191, 1961.</p>

<p>[2] C.H. Bennett and R. Landauer. The fundamental physical limits of computation. Scientific American, 256(7):48–56, July 1985.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-10T16:43:46.603Z
2012-08-14T09:37:41.737Z
2017-04-13T12:48:30.830Z
Juho
<p>Does anybody know of any work that links Theoretical Computer Science and Cheap/Sustainable Energy? i.e is there any work in TCS with the application being in Cheap/Sustainable Energy.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-10T21:24:39.607Z
I am not sure I understand. What do you mean by "Energy"? Energy-efficient computing? Cheap/sustainable energy generation?
Sasho Nikolov
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-11T02:08:31.633Z
J. Zico Kolter has has done nice work applying machine learning techniques to a number of different problems in renewable energy and energy conservation: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~zkolter/publications.html Of course (1) this isn't really theory and (2) like Sasho I'm not sure what you meant by "energy". Hopefully his work will be interesting nevertheless.
Huck Bennett
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-11T23:15:14.947Z
Also check [Steve Easterbrook's page](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sme/) (though he is not a theorist).
Kaveh
<application-of-theory>
Is there any link between TCS and Sustainable Energy research?
NDR
# Is there any link between TCS and Sustainable Energy research?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-08-10)

Does anybody know of any work that links Theoretical Computer Science and Cheap/Sustainable Energy? i.e is there any work in TCS with the application being in Cheap/Sustainable Energy.

**Tags:** application-of-theory

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I am not sure I understand. What do you mean by "Energy"? Energy-efficient computing? Cheap/sustainable energy generation?  
> **username_2**: J. Zico Kolter has has done nice work applying machine learning techniques to a number of different problems in renewable energy and energy conservation: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~zkolter/publications.html Of course (1) this isn't really theory and (2) like Sasho I'm not sure what you meant by "energy". Hopefully his work will be interesting nevertheless.  
> **username_3**: Also check [Steve Easterbrook's page](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sme/) (though he is not a theorist).  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2012-08-11. Score: 8

Kirk Pruhs is a leader in the area of "green computing", the study of algorithms that treat energy as an expensive resource. Take a look at [these slides](http://www.dagstuhl.de/mat/Files/11/11091/11091.PruhsKirk.Slides.pdf) and [this survey](http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~kirk/papers/sigactreview.pdf) by Sandy Irani and Pruhs.


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### Answer by username_5 on 2012-08-10. Score: 7

I'm sure there are quite a few, but here's one. The "standard" book on Kolmogorov complexity by Li & Vitanyi has a chapter on physics, information and computation. The part dealing with energy goes back to the likes of von Neumann and Landauer.

The book looks at energy dissipation from the TCS point of view. Basically, advances in the miniaturization and mobilization of devices will at some point require almost dissipationless computing. It seems that there are no physical laws that require reversible computation to dissipate energy. The book looks briefly at some physical implementations of reversible computers that are theoretically possible. There's also a logical model: the reversible Turing machine.

In addition to Li & Vitanyi, you can take a look at [1] and [2]. You might also be interested in the question [Is there an abstract machine that can capture power consumption?](https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/271/is-there-an-abstract-machine-that-can-capture-power-consumption) on CS.SE.

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[1] R. Landauer. Irreversibility and heat generation in the computing process. IBM J. Res. Develop., 5:183–191, 1961.

[2] C.H. Bennett and R. Landauer. The fundamental physical limits of computation. Scientific American, 256(7):48–56, July 1985.


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