All the buzz about energy and climate makes for an interesting backdrop to the SuperComputing ‘09 conference that has converged on soggy Portland this week. Globally, according to Gartner, information and communications technologies are responsible for ~2% of global CO2 emissions and HPC (High Performance Computing) data centers are amongst the most energy intensive. A fascinating aspect of this week’s conference is the extent to which HPC can have a positive impact on reducing the other 98% of emissions - in other words reinventing industries and applying technology to have a positive impact on the environment.
SuperComputing gathers a very large contingent of the HPC community annually for a wide range of technical talks, demonstrations, workshops, and great keynotes (more on that in a bit!). One of the themes for this year’s SC09 conference is “sustainability”. Portland, Oregon was a great choice of a host for this year’s conference because of all the environmentally aware programs and activities here in the city. A quick Internet search of “top green cities rated” will invariably have Portland at or near the top. This conference is so large that it spills over into multiple venues. It’s a lot of fun to see the whole HPC community shuttling around Portland on the environmentally inspired Max light rail and street cars.
The 5th Annual Intel + UC Berkeley Technology Entreprenuership Challenge concluded tonight with “Ihealth” from Tsinghau University, China winning both the First Prize award of $25k and the People’s Choice Award. Second and third prize were respectively CaptchaAd and Zimplistic. The IBTEC Challenge is a business plan competition focused at combining technology and business development. Technology encompassed in the competition included everything from saving the rainforest through social networking, medical diagnostics for TB, DNA transfer at room temperature,
Ihealth tackled the problem of creating a better bone screw for addressing fractures in load bearing bones/limbs. Current common practice utilizes metal screws which provide the strength for supporting load bearing bones - but must be operated on to remove them after the bone has healed. Alternatively there are bones screws that are biodegradable and the body will eventually reabsorb them but they are not suitable for the “big bones” (load bearing) and create acidic response that can cause inflamation. Now this may have been a rather clinical explanation of the problem - but the team highlighted their new invention which allowed physicians to utilize new biodegradable bones screws which provide the strength to support the big bone breaks and still be reabsorbed by the body without side effect. The team engaged the audience by reviewing the Houston Rockets center Yao Ming’s fractures for roughly the last 5 years - proving that he would have been able to return more quickly to the game - saving Houston millions from the lost revenue generated by winning games. A fun twist on the benefits
When I heard that the Leonid meteor shower this year was predicted to be one of the most active in years past, I was determined to head out and catch the sight of the “shooting stars” myself. And boy was it an amazing sight to see! Sitting under a moon-less night with nothing but the stars and the frequent meteor to light up the sky was nothing short of breathtaking. Granted, it was quite a chilly night even for California weather, but that didn’t stop me from staying out for quite some time in the wee hours of the night.
You may be wondering, “What does the Leonid meteor shower have anything to do with social responsibility?”
Intel and the Wall Street Journal have sponsored a contest called the Education Challenge, where people have provided their perspectives on what can be done to improve students’ engagement with science and math curriculum in the U.S. Five finalists have been selected from hundreds around the country who provided ideas. The winner receives 5K. And YOU can become a key player in solving America’s education challenge by casting your vote here on which finalist came up the best idea.
According to the Education Challenge website “The United States lags significantly behind two dozen other advanced nations in educational performance in science and math.” Shelly Esque, Intel’s VP of Legal and Corporate Affairs, says that every year Intel invests over $100 million dollars world wide to help improve education standards. “As our nation focuses on rebuilding the economy, Educators, Business leaders, governments, and parents must come together to improve education in America,” said Esque. The WSJ Challenge offers an opportunity for us all to ponder the finalists’ perspectives and create awareness about why the United States lags in the critical curriculum areas of science and math. Awareness is the first step in making a difference.
Take a closer look at what the Challenge is about…
We got to Thika late Monday night after traveling all day from Rusinga Island and encountering the dreaded Nairobi rush hour traffic on Thika Road. We spent four days at the Karibu Centre run by Orphan’s Overseas. Karibu Centre has a pre-school for children from surrounding slums, and a support program for pregnant girls from the community.
The first day was spent installing software on Intel powered classmate PCs which Karibu Center purchased or received as donations. After a long day of mounting and installing one CD after the next, on one computer after another, hearing the jingles of preschool computer games playing over and over and over, the team could barely talk. Our communication skills were reduced to grunts.
It was a welcome relief to spend much of the next day training the preschool teachers. Before long, the computer game jingles were back on as the teachers got used to the software they would use to enhance their classrooms. We also spent some time working with the social worker who counsels the young girls, to help her integrate computer training to her curriculum.
What an exciting two months it has been for the Intel Education Service Corps! We launched the first pilot project in September when six employees from Intel’s Technology & Manufacturing Group (three from the US and three from Vietnam) went to work in two orphanages in Vietnam, training the children and staff how to use Intel-powered classmate PCs to connect with other kids around the world. We were supporting the work of a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Orphans Overseas, and they made a very inspiring video of the project while our volunteers were there. See if it makes you cry when you watch it, or maybe it’s just me! The Orphans Overseas staff became our heroes as we witnessed their amazing work with the children in Vietnam, so it was a big thrill to hear from the project coordinator after our team finished their work that he was “the number one fan of the Intel Education Service Corps.” Our employees loved it too, with one commenting that it was “the best experience in my 18 years at Intel!”
Intel Education Service Corps, Bangladesh - Week 2
Four Intel employees recently took on the task of introducing computers in two primary schools in a remote corner of Bangladesh. Working with our Save the Children USA partners over 9 hectic days (Oct. 14th.-22nd., 2009), we installed 60 Classmate PCs (CMPCs) donated by Intel’s World Ahead Program and provided basic computer training to the teachers and students. We were able to bring a spark of excitement and hope in the lives of a thousand students and their 19 teachers in a small town near the western border of Bangladesh, where electricity is undependable and many kids do not get three square meals a day.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the annual SRI in the Rockies conference - the leading annual gathering of socially responsible investors and research firms. The conference itself was born in the Rockies with a small group of SRI groups, but has since grown to +500 participants and now has expanded to lower altitude locations. The conference kicked off Sunday in Tucson, AZ.
It’s actually my seventh time at this conference - and this year is a little bittersweet for me (and I’m sure for many of the other long-time participants). The last time they held the conference in Tucson was September 11th, 2001. I lived in Washington, DC at the time, and ended up on a 54-hour bus ride back with about 30 other east-coast participants. Living less than a mile from the Pentagon at the time and with many family and friends in NY, being stranded so far away only added to the anxiety and sadness - and let’s just say I felt at the time that if I never set foot in Arizona again, well - that would be just fine.
Well, fast forwarding eight years, I keep finding myself thinking about how much has changed - in my own life (I now call Arizona home), in the world, and in the fields of socially responsible investing and corporate responsibility. On this last point, we have more companies than ever publicly reporting on the environmental, social and governance data, more companies are discussing climate change risk in their 10-K filings, and we’re even talking about how to use social media in CSR communications and stakeholder engagement. In 2001, social media wasn’t even a term.
But this return of SRIITR to Tucson, also serves as a reminder of how much still hasn’t changed. On the “hasn’t” front, I’m generally an optimistic, glass half full kind of person. But we still have significant challenges in more deeply integrating CSR into corporate strategy and culture, into financial evaluations of companies, and more effectively building public-private partnerships to address societal challenges.
Intel’s come a long way since 2001 - but we continue to look for areas where we can improve and for opportunities to engage to address key issues - from climate change - to water conservation - to bridging the digital divide. So, for the next two days, I’ll be meeting with some of the best thinkers in this space about how to continue to gather their input and feedback and what innovative things they’d like to see Intel do in the coming year.
You can also help provide input to our CSR strategy and next year’s CSR report - check out our new contest module on Justmeans.com - submit your recommendation and as thanks for your time and input, we’ll enter you for a chance to win a Flip Mino HD camera.
Our journey started on Saturday morning US time, arriving in Kenya on Sunday night Kenya time, after 3 plane transfers, missed connections and lost baggage. Flew to Kisumu on Monday morning to be received by Alphonce Okuku, Director of Kageno Trust, at the Kisumu airport and arrived at Rusinga Island, on Lake Victoria, on Monday afternoon (after a car and ferry ride).
Kageno Trust has a solar equipped vehicle that’s used to charge up to 14 classmate PCs (they only have 7), a teacher’s PC and also powers a wireless router which connects the teacher’s computer to the Classmate PCs. Rusinga Island has no electricity or running water, so the Computer Program facilitators, Nguka and Justus, drive the vehicle to schools around the island to give students an opportunity to have hands on computer training.
On Wednesday, Oct. 14th., the four members of the Intel Education Service Corps met for the very first time over breakfast in a Dhaka hotel, after travelling halfway around the world from Arizona (Bob), Mumbai (Surya), California (Noor), and Oregon (Taslema).
Afterwards, we met with Save the Children USA officials at their Bangladesh headquarters in Dhaka. Security and Human Resource briefings were followed by a review of STC’s programs in Bangladesh, focusing on Early Childhood Development and Basic Education in their chosen impact area of Meherpur. This is the district in Bangladesh with least access to education and very high dropout rates in primary school. Margarita Clark, the Deputy Country Director for Save the Children USA’s Bangladesh program, emphasized the need to develop evidence-based, replicable solutions to enable all children to be successful learners. This is where the 60 Classmate PCs donated by Intel’s World Ahead program to Save The Children USA in Bangladesh will allow a pilot education initiative to take shape, deploying English language and mathematics learning software being developed by Save The Children.
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