Fowler, James E.: Ability in computing programming.
Fowler, James E.: And then we call this desk.
Fowler, James E.: So the team running desk.
Fowler, James E.: I'm Jim Fowler and I'm the one of the two leads.
Fowler, James E.: Dan Andresen's here as well.
Fowler, James E.: He's also helping me lead the team. Then we have sharmista Varun and Sheikh
Fowler, James E.: from the OAC division of size.
Fowler, James E.: Sharmini also is from CCF, which is where I'm from and we have
Fowler, James E.: Sylvia and goalie from IIS.
Fowler, James E.: And Heather, from the office of the director.
Fowler, James E.: So I want to give a brief overview about what the desk program is and what it is
Fowler, James E.: not.
Fowler, James E.: And then we'll go over some.
Fowler, James E.: Specifics about applying to the program, but this presentation won't last too long.
Fowler, James E.: We will then turn the floor over to questions.
Fowler, James E.: But you can ask questions at any time while I'm talking on this presentation.
Fowler, James E.: I just put your question into the chat and we will attempt to get to that in due
Fowler, James E.: course.
Fowler, James E.: So the motivation for the desk program?
Fowler, James E.: Of course, you know, there's been a lot of concern about
Fowler, James E.: energy consumption, particularly by the vast numbers of data
Fowler, James E.: centers that are coming online.
Fowler, James E.: In 2022 is estimated that about 2% of all of global electricity went toward to data
Fowler, James E.: centers.
Fowler, James E.: This is expected to double.
Fowler, James E.: By the year 2026.
Fowler, James E.: So quite a bit of power going towards data centers.
Fowler, James E.: Additionally, there's been a great deal of concern
Fowler, James E.: about carbon.
Fowler, James E.: That represents embodied energy that goes into the manufacture of these devices.
Fowler, James E.: For servers for instance, like the embodied carbon can be up to 50%
Fowler, James E.: of the total carbon, that means.
Fowler, James E.: The rest of the would be from operational use,
Fowler, James E.: but half of the carbon going into the manufactured and manufacturing of the
Fowler, James E.: service.
Fowler, James E.: This can be much, much higher though. If you have energy optimized compute
Fowler, James E.: devices. As you can see for for example an iPhone,
Fowler, James E.: 81% of the carbon emissions comes from the production.
Fowler, James E.: Use is only 18%.
Fowler, James E.: And then finally, e-waste is a growing concern.
Fowler, James E.: There's a lot of rare earth materials in these devices.
Fowler, James E.: Recovery of those would help substantially,
Fowler, James E.: but then there's also unavoidable waste. And that has certainly negative
Fowler, James E.: environmental impacts. And so the all of these issues, energy,
Fowler, James E.: carbon and e-waste all factor into.
Fowler, James E.: The sustainability, or lack thereof, of computing.
Fowler, James E.: To to date, this has largely been an understand
Fowler, James E.: understudied problem.
Fowler, James E.: In body carbon, greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of rare earth materials and
Fowler, James E.: e-waste, all these things are known, but we don't really have any sort of
Fowler, James E.: comprehensive framework for addressing these problems as they apply to computing.
Fowler, James E.: There's also trends that are going on in the computing community that are
Fowler, James E.: compounding.
Fowler, James E.: These problems, many more devices design with planned
Fowler, James E.: obsolescence.
Fowler, James E.: Big data, dark silicon, resource intensive software and then
Fowler, James E.: applications as well.
Fowler, James E.: Think AI.
Fowler, James E.: Think blockchain.
Fowler, James E.: So addressing all of these issues requires a mindset change as well as new
Fowler, James E.: metrics and new visibility into the problem.
Fowler, James E.: So we've already talked about data centers,
Fowler, James E.: but there's also and other devices.
Fowler, James E.: Heavy usage of batteries, diesel generators, toxic coolants,
Fowler, James E.: things along those lines.
Fowler, James E.: So energy efficiency alone, which is something that we've been able
Fowler, James E.: to address with pretty good success, is insufficient to solve these challenges.
Fowler, James E.: And that is where the desk program comes into play.
Fowler, James E.: So the overriding objective of desk is to build a community of interdisciplinary
Fowler, James E.: researchers.
Fowler, James E.: That are striving for disruptive improvements in the sustainability of
Fowler, James E.: next generation computing.
Fowler, James E.: So some of the key challenges that we expect projects funded by desk to address
Fowler, James E.: include applying the principles of sustainable and lifecycle science to
Fowler, James E.: computing, defining, measuring.
Fowler, James E.: And optimizing sustainability from a computational perspective.
Fowler, James E.: Pushing that Pareto optimal boundary of performance,
Fowler, James E.: promoting design for environmental sustainability is a top tier goal,
Fowler, James E.: not relegating it to a second or even tertiary level concept,
Fowler, James E.: but really bringing it up to energy and performance as a design goal of the top
Fowler, James E.: tier.
Fowler, James E.: And then we want to leverage opportunities for sustainability across
Fowler, James E.: the.
Fowler, James E.: Continue until across the entire computing stack,
Fowler, James E.: and we want to avoid planned obsolescence.
Fowler, James E.: So sustainability projects for desk are solicited from and across all of the size
Fowler, James E.: disciplines. And so we anticipate that we'll see
Fowler, James E.: projects funded by desk that address.
Fowler, James E.: You know, obviously things like hardware design and
Fowler, James E.: hardware architecture.
Fowler, James E.: Models and metrics for things like greenhouse gases.
Fowler, James E.: Infrastructure design, reusability and then things that might
Fowler, James E.: not be so.
Fowler, James E.: Obvious sustainable algorithms and workflows, languages,
Fowler, James E.: frameworks and tools, software and interface design.
Fowler, James E.: All of these things can impact the sustainability of computing,
Fowler, James E.: and so we anticipate having a broad portfolio.
Fowler, James E.: Projects that address all of the size disciplines.
Fowler, James E.: So there are some boundaries to be cognizant of for desk the overriding idea
Fowler, James E.: here is that sustainability is more than just energy efficiency, so we expect.
Fowler, James E.: Just projects to be transformative, to be potentially cross disciplinary and
Fowler, James E.: to provide possibly clean slate approaches to improve environmental
Fowler, James E.: sustainability at any level across the computing continuum.
Fowler, James E.: We expect that desk projects should be able to quantify and measure the
Fowler, James E.: improvement to environmental sustainability going beyond.
Fowler, James E.: Energy efficiency such that we can come up with sustainability metrics.
Fowler, James E.: That we can design too and we expect the projects to be ambitious and forward
Fowler, James E.: thinking.
Fowler, James E.: Now having said that, there are some ideas that are decidedly
Fowler, James E.: out of scope for DES, so projects that focus exclusively on
Fowler, James E.: computing performance and or energy efficiency.
Fowler, James E.: Those may be valuable projects, but we fund a lot of this kind of stuff
Fowler, James E.: in size already.
Fowler, James E.: And so if it's just about computing performance.
Fowler, James E.: Or if it's just about energy efficiency that belongs somewhere else,
Fowler, James E.: not with desk projects that use computing to advance other sectors of
Fowler, James E.: sustainability.
Fowler, James E.: Again, a worthwhile goal, but not something that's aligned with
Fowler, James E.: desk.
Fowler, James E.: We think that these things are funded elsewhere at NSF,
Fowler, James E.: so certainly using AI to to look at, you know.
Fowler, James E.: Water resource management or something like that might be something that would
Fowler, James E.: be funded maybe over in the.
Fowler, James E.: Geo Directorate, but not here with desk and then projects
Fowler, James E.: that seek to advance economic or social justice of computing as a sole focus.
Fowler, James E.: Again, this is something that would be fundable,
Fowler, James E.: perhaps in another directorate like at the SBE Directorate, here at NSF,
Fowler, James E.: but not within desk corpse. If you are coming up with a
Fowler, James E.: sustainability metric that includes.
Fowler, James E.: Advanced economic and social justice of computing that.
Fowler, James E.: That can be part of it, but that having that as a sole focus is
Fowler, James E.: not appropriate for desk OK desk is composed of three types of projects.
Fowler, James E.: The first type, Type 1.
Fowler, James E.: These are small projects.
Fowler, James E.: Research activities fall within a three-year duration and typically have
Fowler, James E.: one to two Pis.
Fowler, James E.: And budgets run up to 600 K.
Fowler, James E.: Type 2 projects.
Fowler, James E.: These are large projects. We expect these to be interdisciplinary
Fowler, James E.: and or cross layer efforts and that means that we're going to require larger teams
Fowler, James E.: of Pis for this. The budgets for the large projects can
Fowler, James E.: run up to $2,000, 000 and have up to a four year D.
Fowler, James E.: And then there are Type 3 projects which are workshop projects.
Fowler, James E.: And these are workshops designed to catalyze research activities.
Fowler, James E.: And the budgets run up to 100K and up to A1 year duration.
Fowler, James E.: So the deadline for the type one and the Type 2 projects.
Fowler, James E.: Are they're both due on September 12th of 2025,
Fowler, James E.: but the Type 3 workshop projects have no deadlines and the proposals can be
Fowler, James E.: submitted any time.
Fowler, James E.: Now there are some intertwined Pi limits for small projects.
Fowler, James E.: A person can be API or copi or a senior personnel on up to two small projects.
Fowler, James E.: However, if you are already API Co π or a senior
Fowler, James E.: person on a large that's being submitted, you can only submit one small project.
Fowler, James E.: Likewise for the large projects, you can be API Co,
Fowler, James E.: π or senior person on up to one submission.
Fowler, James E.: But if you're already on two small submissions,
Fowler, James E.: then you cannot submit it all in the large category.
Fowler, James E.: Now there are no Pi, Co, π, or senior personnel limits on the
Fowler, James E.: workshop proposals, so these limits are independent of other
Fowler, James E.: NSF programs, including size core programs.
Fowler, James E.: To this, just looking at the desk program.
Fowler, James E.: And we have a lifetime limit as well, so a person can be API Co π or a senior
Fowler, James E.: personnel on up to two small awards and up to one large award during the life of
Fowler, James E.: the program.
Fowler, James E.: So the program as it was initially established,
Fowler, James E.: ran runs for three submission cycles.
Fowler, James E.: And so this upcoming cycle.
Fowler, James E.: In September.
Fowler, James E.: Of 2025, which will be for funding in fiscal year
Fowler, James E.: 26 as the last of these.
Fowler, James E.: So if you've already had two small awards in desk in the subsequent submission
Fowler, James E.: windows, then your your ineligible to be on
Fowler, James E.: additional smalls.
Fowler, James E.: For example, there are no limits on the workshops.
Fowler, James E.: OK.
Fowler, James E.: So let's talk about these types of projects a little bit more in depth.
Fowler, James E.: So type one small projects the deadline as I mentioned was September 12th, 2025.
Fowler, James E.: We expect a fund, maybe up to ten of these awards.
Fowler, James E.: Is a fairly typical NSF proposal, in that you have a 15 page project
Fowler, James E.: description.
Fowler, James E.: And we expect that small projects will either be standalone projects or they may
Fowler, James E.: serve as a preliminary exploration.
Fowler, James E.: For a subsequent Type 2 project. So if you are submitting a small project
Fowler, James E.: and you do intend to seek subsequent large project funding,
Fowler, James E.: then one you should be.
Fowler, James E.: Writing your proposal such that the Type 1 project is self-contained,
Fowler, James E.: so everything is in it for the reviewers to see.
Fowler, James E.: You need to clearly articulate how it prepares for research to be done in the
Fowler, James E.: subsequent Type 2 project.
Fowler, James E.: But you also need to present the broad vision for the entire project duration.
Fowler, James E.: So you need to talk about what you're going to do for the type one,
Fowler, James E.: and then a little bit about what the vision is for expanding into the Type 2
Fowler, James E.: eventually.
Fowler, James E.: Type 2 large projects have the same deadline.
Fowler, James E.: We expect to be able to fund up to two of these.
Fowler, James E.: Out of this upcoming submission cycle, there's a slightly longer project
Fowler, James E.: description. At 20 pages, you are required to submit a management
Fowler, James E.: of coordination plan of up to three pages.
Fowler, James E.: And then realize that the award of a type one small project is not a prerequisite.
Fowler, James E.: For seeking a Type 2 large funding so you can have a Type 2 large project that is
Fowler, James E.: supported by a prior type, one small or even some other award.
Fowler, James E.: Say something that you got earlier through CNS.
Fowler, James E.: Or perhaps you got an award in the design for sustainability in.
Fowler, James E.: Computing dear colleague.
Fowler, James E.: Letter that was issued.
Fowler, James E.: Earlier, that's document 22-060.
Fowler, James E.: So if this is the case, then you want to clearly talk about how
Fowler, James E.: the Type 2 research is novel, but also builds upon the previous type
Fowler, James E.: one or the previous equivalent funding.
Fowler, James E.: So it is possible for you to have a concurrent type,
Fowler, James E.: one small or a DCL funding.
Fowler, James E.: With a Type 2 large. However, if you are planning to do a Type 1.
Fowler, James E.: With a subsequent Type 2 coupling between.
Fowler, James E.: Two projects, a small and then a large.
Fowler, James E.: You should not seek funding for both simultaneously in the same round.
Fowler, James E.: You should seek funding for the small 1st and then if you're successful then
Fowler, James E.: continue on at a subsequent submission for a Type 2 large.
Fowler, James E.: OK.
Fowler, James E.: So there are some additional review criteria associated with type one and
Fowler, James E.: Type 2 projects.
Fowler, James E.: One is that we ask the reviewers to comment upon whether relevant notions of
Fowler, James E.: environmental sustainability are addressed within your proposal.
Fowler, James E.: For instance, project should not address energy
Fowler, James E.: efficiency exclusively.
Fowler, James E.: There should be other components to sustainability beyond energy efficiency
Fowler, James E.: addressed in your proposal.
Fowler, James E.: We ask the reviewers how the sustainability vision.
Fowler, James E.: And will be attained as well as evaluated for and from both theoretical and
Fowler, James E.: experimental perspectives.
Fowler, James E.: So the project should be impactful for environmental sustainability of computing,
Fowler, James E.: and the proposal should clearly describe how this will be achieved through both
Fowler, James E.: theory and experiment.
Fowler, James E.: And then a big big one is the definition of sustainability metrics.
Fowler, James E.: We asked the reviewers to assess.
Fowler, James E.: What metrics you propose and whether they are sufficient to reach beyond the
Fowler, James E.: performance and energy efficiency, whether they can successfully capture
Fowler, James E.: impact on environmental sustainability and also their ability to be quantified
Fowler, James E.: and evaluated?
Fowler, James E.: So DES project should be able to define reasonable environmental metrics on, say,
Fowler, James E.: greenhouse gases, wastewater.
Fowler, James E.: Volatile organic compounds, e-waste, et cetera.
Fowler, James E.: And then use them to quantify and evaluate the projects impact on
Fowler, James E.: sustainability.
Fowler, James E.: Now moving on to the Type 3 workshops, there's no doubt in line.
Fowler, James E.: You can submit any time.
Fowler, James E.: So we expect that there'll be more workshops funded earlier in the program
Fowler, James E.: to prepare researchers for submitting subsequent type one and Type 2 proposals,
Fowler, James E.: so.
Fowler, James E.: We're we're kind of getting past that right now,
Fowler, James E.: but we expect up to five awards for each of the funding deadlines.
Fowler, James E.: Or funding.
Fowler, James E.: Cycles, I should say.
Fowler, James E.: There's a shorter project description up to 8 pages.
Fowler, James E.: And you do need to follow what's in Pap G chapter 2F and or concerning the guidance
Fowler, James E.: for conference proposals.
Fowler, James E.: So it's a little bit different than, you know, a type one or Type 2 proposal,
Fowler, James E.: which are research proposals.
Fowler, James E.: So we hope that Type 3 workshops will catalyze researchers in the areas within
Fowler, James E.: the scope of desk.
Fowler, James E.: The workshops could encourage exploration.
Fowler, James E.: In a particular size topic area, but do not need to directly relate to a
Fowler, James E.: particular proposal.
Fowler, James E.: On the other hand, it is envisioned that the Pisa,
Fowler, James E.: the Tinder workshop, could eventually form teams to submit
Fowler, James E.: collaborative type one and Type 2 proposals.
Fowler, James E.: So there are some additional review criteria for the Type 3 workshop.
Fowler, James E.: Proposals the reviewers will be asked about the notions of environmental
Fowler, James E.: sustainability that are proposed.
Fowler, James E.: By your workshop and the workshop must articulate the relevance of the topic
Fowler, James E.: area to environmental sustainability.
Fowler, James E.: The reviewers are also asked about the vision that is incorporated in your
Fowler, James E.: proposal for advancing environmental sustainability.
Fowler, James E.: From a theoretical as well as experimental perspective,
Fowler, James E.: so the workshop can promote discussion about how a particular field can advance
Fowler, James E.: sustainability, and it can include discussions of
Fowler, James E.: strategies, both conceptually and potentially in some
Fowler, James E.: detail related to experimentation.
Fowler, James E.: And then finally, the reviewers assess the potential of the
Fowler, James E.: workshop for seeding new metrics, new approaches, and new research ideas.
Fowler, James E.: Within a discipline.
Fowler, James E.: Of size. So workshops are a good place to discuss
Fowler, James E.: and then settle on what are the appropriate metrics related to that
Fowler, James E.: discipline and then how to quantify the impact of those metrics on environmental
Fowler, James E.: sustainability?
Fowler, James E.: So some general best practices as these actually are pretty generic and applied
Fowler, James E.: to other programs than just simply desk. But for desk you want to attend webinars,
Fowler, James E.: town halls and office hours when those are available.
Fowler, James E.: So you're here at the webinar now.
Fowler, James E.: We're also gonna uh, have, uh, scheduled a town hall in July.
Fowler, James E.: That might be a good place to ask follow up questions.
Fowler, James E.: You can, though, send questions at any time to the desk at
Fowler, James E.: nsf.gov e-mail address, and one of us will get back with you with
Fowler, James E.: an answer as soon as we can.
Fowler, James E.: As a general word of advice, read the solicitation very very closely.
Fowler, James E.: Ensure that your submission complies with all of the submission rules that are
Fowler, James E.: outlined there.
Fowler, James E.: They're also in the solicitation, may be some useful examples.
Fowler, James E.: Relevant to the topical area of interest that you are pursuing and then you can
Fowler, James E.: always contact one of us at NSF with A1 page summary before submission and we can
Fowler, James E.: offer you some some guidance from that.
Fowler, James E.: So this brings us to the.
Fowler, James E.: The end of the presentation.
Fowler, James E.: I'll stop here in just a second and.
Fowler, James E.: Address some questions that are proposed in the chat.
Fowler, James E.: But overall, desk is designed to make computing more
Fowler, James E.: sustainable with respect to a broad range of environmental issues broader than has
Fowler, James E.: been considered in the in the past. We also want to grow an interdisciplinary
Fowler, James E.: community of researchers with long term impacts.
Fowler, James E.: In this area and so we are seeking your project ideas and submissions to address
Fowler, James E.: these key challenges. Again, you can submit A1 pager to desk@nsf.
Fowler, James E.: gov or to one of the program directors directly for feedback on suitability of
Fowler, James E.: your idea.
Fowler, James E.: And with that, I will stop sharing.
Fowler, James E.: So I can see what's going on.
Fowler, James E.: And we can open the floor for any questions that anybody might have.
Fowler, James E.: Do we have any that have come up in the chat?
Fowler, James E.: Don't think so. No, not yet.
Fowler, James E.: OK.
Fowler, James E.: So how has raised his hand?
Fowler, James E.: Is it possible for them to speak Edgar or they gonna?
Fowler, James E.: Are they restricted to being in the chat?
Huertas, Edgar J: Yeah, if you guys, if you guys want me to, I can open it.
Huertas, Edgar J: I can allow him to speak.
Fowler, James E.: Yeah. Why?
Fowler, James E.: Why don't you go ahead and do that?
Huertas, Edgar J: OK.
Huertas, Edgar J: Wait one second.