REU Site: Research Experience for Undergraduates in High Efficiency Computing

信息技术(IT)系统的范围从智能手机等小型嵌入式系统到数据中心等大型计算机设施。无论规模大小，IT系统都会按比例消耗大量能源。它们还会浪费大量资源，比如电池寿命缩短或数据中心运营成本上升，因此提高它们的效率满足了国家的一项关键需求。该项目的目标是提出解决方案，通过以下方式提高IT系统的能源效率：1)发展训练有素的学生劳动力队伍；2)提出能够减少能源消耗和损失的新技术和方法。将向学生介绍将电源优化技术应用于IT系统的研究领域。目标人群是代表性不足的学生和来自不提供博士学位的机构的学生。除了印第安纳大学普渡大学印第安纳波利斯分校(IUPUI)的学术指导外，该项目还包括来自行业的指导。传统上，IT课程的开发侧重于参数，如性能和运行时优化。特别是从软件和算法的角度，很少或根本没有对实现能源效率和消耗阈值给予关注。这个项目将为本科生提供独一无二的经验和独特的机会，让他们研究降低IT系统能耗和损失的创新策略。除了被选中的学生的职业道路可能发生变化外，本项目还建议如何影响电气和计算机工程课程，以便将能源效率纳入硬件和软件课程。本项目将展示减少IT系统内能源消耗和损失的新方法，这可以通过多学科方法来实现。主题将从硬件到软件解决方案，以效率为主要指标。传统上，多电压多频(MVMF)被用来降低计算系统的能量消耗。本项目提出了MVMF2，它不仅可以动态改变计算机时钟频率，还可以动态改变电源开关频率，进一步降低损耗。虽然MVMF2被认为是由软件管理的硬件优化，但第二个研究课题-基于新电源转换器设计的更高效率的电源-纯粹是硬件解决方案。第三和第四个研究课题分别是在高内存需求应用和处理大矩阵乘法中降低能耗的软件解决方案。第五个研究课题通过对无线物联网设备的节能模式进行建模和优化，如降低功率运行、周期性休眠等，研究无线物联网设备的节能技术。

Information Technology (IT) systems range from small embedded systems such as smartphones to large computer facilities such as data centers. Whether small or large, IT systems proportionately use lots of energy. They also waste a lot, as in shorter battery life or higher data-center operating costs, so improving their efficiency fulfills a critical national need. The objective of this project is to propose solutions to increase energy efficiency in IT systems by: 1) developing a well-trained student workforce, and 2) proposing new techniques and approaches capable of reducing energy consumption and losses. Students will be introduced to the research area of applying power optimization techniques to IT systems. The target populations are underrepresented students and those from institutions that do not offer PhDs. In addition to academic mentoring by Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) faculty, this project includes mentors from industry.Traditionally, IT curricula have been developed with disciplines that focus on parameters, such as performance and runtime optimization. Little or no attention has been devoted to achieving energy efficiency and consumption thresholds, especially from the software and algorithmic perspectives. This project will provide original experiences and singular opportunities for undergraduate students to work on innovative strategies to reduce energy consumption and losses in IT systems. In addition to the potential change in the career paths of the selected students, this project suggests how the electrical and computer engineering curricula can be impacted to incorporate energy efficiency in both hardware and software curricula.This project will demonstrate novel methodologies in reducing energy consumption and losses within IT systems, which can be accomplished with a multidisciplinary approach. Topics will range from hardware to software solutions with efficiency as the main figure of merit. Traditionally, Multiple-Voltage Multiple-Frequency (MVMF) has been used to reduce energy consumption in computing systems. This project proposes MVMF2, which not only dynamically changes the computer clock frequency, but also dynamically changes power supply switching frequency for further loss reduction. While MVMF2 is considered a hardware optimization managed by software, the second research topic - a higher efficiency power supply based on a new power converter design - is purely a hardware solution. The third and fourth research topics are software solutions to reduce energy consumption in high memory demand applications and processing big matrix multiplication, respectively. The fifth research topic deals with energy consumption reduction techniques in wireless Internet of Things devices by modeling and optimizing power saving modes, such as reduced power operation, cyclical sleep, among others.