B8335 - SOSTENIBILITA' DIGITALE

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students: know the fundamental principles of digital sustainability and their impact on the environment, society, and the economy; are familiar with sustainable digital technologies and practices, including energy efficiency, responsible data management, and the life cycle of digital devices; understand the environmental and social impact of digital infrastructures, such as data centres, communication networks, and IoT devices; are able to analyse and assess the digital practices of an organisation or project, identifying areas for improvement to reduce their environmental impact; are able to design sustainable digital solutions that balance innovation, performance, and environmental impact reduction; understand the role of digital sustainability in the context of the circular economy and e-waste management policies; are able to communicate digital sustainability concepts and raise awareness of good digital practices among different stakeholders.

Course contents

The Digital Sustainability course introduces the principles, methodologies, and technologies used to design, develop, and assess sustainable digital systems. The course addresses sustainability by considering the environmental, social, and economic aspects of information technologies, with particular emphasis on software energy efficiency, the impact of digital infrastructures, artificial intelligence, web systems, and resource-constrained devices.

The course presents tools and methodologies for analysing the resource consumption of digital applications, measuring their environmental impact, and designing solutions that balance performance, quality of service, and sustainability. A significant part of the course is devoted to laboratory activities, in which students experiment with sustainable development techniques, software optimisation, and the assessment of the impact of different design solutions.

Principles of Digital Sustainability

Introduction to digital sustainability. The three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. The impact of digital technologies. Energy consumption of ICT infrastructures. Circular economy, life-cycle management of digital devices, and electronic waste. Indicators and metrics for sustainability assessment.

Technologies and Methodologies for Sustainable Digital Systems

Software energy efficiency. Energy consumption measurement and analysis of the carbon footprint of digital applications. Green Software Engineering. Web sustainability and the design of efficient web applications. WebAssembly as a technology for high-performance, energy-efficient applications. Cloud infrastructures, edge computing, and IoT devices from a sustainability perspective.

Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability

The environmental impact of Artificial Intelligence models. Techniques for developing efficient models. TinyML and AI on embedded devices. Recommender systems, data quality, and bias in datasets. Ethical and social implications of Artificial Intelligence.

Readings/Bibliography

• Tom Greenwood, Sustainable Web Design, A Book Apart, 2024.
• Asim Hussain, Anne Currie, Sara Bergman, Sophie Koonin, Building Green Software: A Sustainable Approach to Software Development and Operations, O'Reilly Media, 2024.
• Virginia Dignum, Responsible Artificial Intelligence: How to Develop and Use AI in a Responsible Way, Springer, 2019

Teaching methods

The course includes lectures and laboratory sessions. The lectures introduce the main concepts of digital sustainability, presenting methodologies, tools, and case studies. The laboratory activities allow students to apply this knowledge through practical exercises focusing on sustainable software development, energy-efficiency analysis, assessment of the carbon footprint of digital applications, the use of technologies for embedded systems, and the critical analysis of artificial intelligence datasets and models.

Assessment methods

The examination consists of a project, to be carried out individually or in pairs, designed to assess the student’s ability to apply the methodologies, tools, and techniques presented during the course to the design and development of sustainable digital solutions. The project is awarded a score of up to 27/30.

The project assessment is followed by an oral examination aimed at verifying the student’s understanding of the theoretical and methodological aspects covered during the course, as well as the design choices made in carrying out the project. The oral examination must be passed and may add up to 5 points to the project score.

Teaching tools

All materials used during lectures and lab exercises are also made available in electronic format on the Virtuale platform.

Office hours

See the website of Paola Salomoni

See the website of Stefano Epifani

See the website of Giovanni Delnevo