Transient Electronics for Sustainable ICT in DigitaL Agriculture

数字农业中可持续 ICT 的瞬态电子技术

• 批准号: EP/W035790/1
• 负责人: Jeff Kettle
• 金额: $ 26.88万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FW035790%2F1
• 关键词: Transient; Electronics; Sustainable; ICT; DigitaL

ICT enabled cutting-edge frontier technologies such as clean energy, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), digital twin, robotics, space 2.0 technologies, smart cities, etc. present numerous innovative solutions to mitigate and combat global challenges while acting as the drivers of the global economy. At the same, these technologies have an environmental impact at each stage of their life cycle as the underpinning ICT hardware is often made with unsustainable materials, and processes. Further, at the end-of-life cycle most of the electronic hardware (up to 80%) ends up as electronic waste (e-Waste) - posing environmental and public health risks.Recognising this double-edged nature of today's ICT, TESLA aims to bring transformative change by developing transient or time-variant electronic hardware, which will do its job (e.g., fast computing, communication etc.) well during the lifetime and continue to provide value even after its life is over. In other words, sustainable ICT manufacturing without disrupting its enabling power. For example, the electronics degrading naturally into compost. TESLA will walk a tightrope to achieve this vision and develop transformative approaches to unlock the potential of ICT in helping to monitor, adapt and mitigate global challenges, while ensuring they do not harm the people or the planet. This is not an easy task as this requires fundamental changes in the way ICT hardware is developed and used. For example, materials used for sensors and electronics will have be designed for sustainability and not just the performance (as is the standard practice today). Likewise, the fabrication processes that lead to lesser wastage, less energy and lesser use of rare earth materials will need to be developed. Further, digital agriculture has been used as test bed to validate the proposed approach as besides using degradable sensors for monitoring plants, this application is well suited to evaluate the compostability of developed degradable electronics.TESLA's ambitious vision and proactive approach are a step ahead of the current e-Waste related policies, which are largely reactive in nature as they advocate the efficient or extended use/reuse of ICT. There is no doubt that the current policies are steps in right direction, but they are insufficient as they do not guarantee zero-waste or capture the new opportunities that potentially come with e-Waste. They simply slow down the tsunami of e-Waste. On other hand, in TESLA's vision ICT hardware will not require any e-Waste management strategy because there will be none when ICT hardware will degrade naturally.

ICT使清洁能源、人工智能（AI）、物联网（IoT）、数字孪生、机器人、空间2.0技术、智慧城市等前沿技术成为可能，为缓解和应对全球挑战提供了众多创新解决方案，同时也是全球经济的驱动力。与此同时，这些技术在其生命周期的每个阶段都对环境产生影响，因为信通技术的基础硬件往往是用不可持续的材料和工艺制造的。此外，在生命周期结束时，大多数电子硬件（高达80%）最终成为电子废物（电子废物）-构成环境和公共健康风险。TESLA认识到当今ICT的这种双刃剑性质，旨在通过开发瞬态或时变电子硬件来实现变革，这些硬件将完成其工作（例如，快速计算、通信等）在其生命周期内，即使在其生命结束后，也会继续提供价值。换句话说，可持续的ICT制造业不会破坏其使能能力。例如，电子产品自然降解成堆肥。TESLA将走钢丝来实现这一愿景，并开发变革性方法，以释放ICT在帮助监测、适应和缓解全球挑战方面的潜力，同时确保这些挑战不会伤害人类或地球。这不是一项容易的任务，因为这需要从根本上改变开发和使用信通技术硬件的方式。例如，用于传感器和电子产品的材料将被设计为可持续性，而不仅仅是性能（这是今天的标准做法）。同样，将需要开发导致更少浪费、更少能源和更少使用稀土材料的制造工艺。此外，数字农业已被用作测试床，以验证所提出的方法，除了使用可降解传感器监测植物，这个应用程序非常适合于评估开发的可降解电子产品的可堆肥性。TESLA的雄心勃勃的愿景和积极主动的方法是领先于当前的电子废物相关政策，这在很大程度上是反应性的，因为他们提倡有效或延长使用/再利用的信息和通信技术。毫无疑问，目前的政策是朝着正确方向迈出的步伐，但它们还不够，因为它们不能保证零废物或抓住电子废物可能带来的新机会。它们只是减缓了电子垃圾的海啸。另一方面，在TESLA的愿景中，ICT硬件将不需要任何电子废物管理战略，因为当ICT硬件自然退化时，将不需要任何电子废物管理战略。