Computational Sustainability: Computational Methods for a Sustainable Environment, Economy, and Society

Institute for Computational Sustainability (ICS), funded under the NSF Expeditions in Computing program, is forging a highly interdisciplinary effort to create and nurture the new field of Computational Sustainability, with the grand vision that computing and information science can – and should – play a key role in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the way we manage and allocate our natural resources. The multi-disciplinary, multiinstitutional ICS research team is based at Cornell University and includes leading computer and environmental scientists at Oregon State University, Bowdoin College, Howard University, and The Conservation Fund (TCF). The ultimate goal of this Expedition is to help alleviate some of the key environmental and sustainability challenges facing our planet today. Concrete examples of potential payoffs are an increased efficiency in the use of our natural resources, more effective computational models for maintaining (or increasing) biodiversity, and large-scale computational equilibrium models for studying trade-offs in the area of renewable energy. This Expedition has been organized to integrate research and education. The research being conducted by ICS continues to advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching (through new courses and seminars), training (through workshops and outreach), and learning (through real-world projects and problem cataloging). Given the immediate societal relevance and the environmental component, the area of computational sustainability has found a unique appeal to women and other groups that are traditionally underrepresented in computer science, thus helping increase their participation in the field of computer science.