The Necessity of Green Computing

This assignment discusses the necessity of adopting green computing practices to preserve the environment, reduce energy consumption, and promote economic and social sustainability. It highlights the benefits of green computing, including energy efficiency, resource optimization, and reduced e-waste, as well as challenges such as limited awareness and identification with green computing. The assignment concludes that green computing is essential for creating a sustainable business and environmental future.

Understanding Technology Portfolio
(UTEC3015)
Name: Aribisala ABESIN Ileola
Student Number: 56109
Tutor name: Akim Yillah
This is your Understanding Technology Portfolio. Please save a copy on
your computer and back it up regularly (e.g. by saving it on your computer /
in the cloud (e.g. Google Drive) / emailing it to yourself. At the end of the
course, you need to submit a completed electronic copy.
Spring 18
Assessed Learning Outcomes:
1. Describe the scope of hardware and software currently in use
and the technological advances taking place.
2. Describe ways in which computing science and information
technology can contribute to the sustainability of economic,
human and natural resources.
3. Describe the relationships between digital computing networks
and wider digital cultures and society.

UTEC3015 Understanding Technology Spring 2018 Firsit Portfolio
Assignment Questions
Please refer to suggested word counts for each task included within this portfolio.
Week Contents Page Learning
outcomes
Week 1-3 3D printing is seen as game changer in
industrial manufacturing. Prepare a power point
presentation (no more than 8 slides) on the
hardware and software requirements of a 3D
printer. Discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of 3D printing.
Your presentation should be aesthetically
designed with images and short bullet points.
Place screenshots of your presentation in the
portfolio along with description.
3 LO1
Week 4-6 Discuss virtual reality as the evolution and
future of digital communication. How would
virtual reality impact digital societies?
4 LO3
Week 7-10 Data center facilities are heavy consumers of
energy. The U.S. Department of Energy
estimates that data center facilities consume up
to 100 to 200 times more energy than standard
office building. Discuss how adopting green
computing techniques in data centre design can
contribute to the sustainability of economic,
human and natural resources.
Note: You can include the following features:
subheadings, bullet points, charts and graphs
as relevant.
5 LO2
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Task 1- Presentation task
3D printing is seen as game changer in industrial manufacturing. Prepare a power
point presentation (no more than 8 slides) on the hardware and software
requirements of a 3D printer. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of 3D
printing.
Your presentation should be aesthetically designed with images and short bullet
points.
Place screenshots of your presentation in the portfolio.
Title: 3D Printer – Hardware and software
(Presentation (no more than 8 slides), Description (word count: suggested 500
words))
3D printing, also popularly called as additive manufacturing, is a process of creating a
solid 3D object from a digital model. It is called additive manufacturing owing to the
process of creating the 3D objects; successive layers of materials are added to a
surface in different shapes to create a specified object (Chia & Wu, 2015). To create
the image, Computer Aided Design program (CAD) is used and the file is saved using
the STL (Stereo Lithograph file). Subsequent to saving, the file is then transferred to a
g-code generator program which converts the file which consists of the image which
has to be printed into a set of instruction which the computer comprehends. The 3D
printer used CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) software, which reads the file and
sends electronic signals to control extruder and motors which basically moved in 3D
dimension to extrude a filament onto a surface, eventually creating the specified
object through sequential layering(Ventola, 2014).
Software requirements: CAD, CAM, Stereo Lithography, Constructive solid geometry
& G-Code.
Hardware requirement: RepRap ArduinoMEGA 2560 Pololu Shield, Stepper motors,
Stepper drivers, End stops and Thermistor.
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RAMPS Board
Thermistor Schematic
The above mentioned explanation helps to understand how to set up the hardware
and software in order to create a 3D object from a digital model. The 3D printer has
been in vogue right from the point the discussion on it began, it find great utility
amongst hobbyists and small businesses who wants to create customized parts to fit
in their ad-hoc needs(Stansbury & Idacavage, 2016)
Advantages of 3D Printing
 Time saving- 3D printing serves as a medium to convert the ideas into reality
in very less time. As soon as the idea comes up, it can be printed at the very
same time, thus reducing the development processing time.
 Money Saver-The technique used in 3D printing is additive manufacturing,
which is excessively cheaper in comparison to traditional manufacturing.
 Imagination builder-It is one of the biggest advantages of 3D printing,
whatever one envisions in his dreams can be turned into reality by just
creating the drawing in the mind of a digital platform. It helps to give reality to
a person’s imagination.
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 Highly Personalized-3D printing gives the pedestal of creation in the hand of
the user, one can literally create anything, and tweak it to best suit his need,
or fit his requirement. Personalization feature of 3D printing is extremely
beneficial to its users(Lu, Li & Tian,2015)
Disadvantages of 3D Printing
Scale and Size are limiting factors-The size of the objects produced by 3D printer is
really small. The majority of 3D printers used presently can print items up to 1 cubic
yard if polymer is used and 1 cubic foot if metal is used. This is definitely one of the
biggest limitations of 3D printer (Oropallo & Piegel, 2016).
Defies the concept of achieving economies of scale-3D printing provides with the
benefit of high customization, but its limitation of printing just one object at a time
refrains people from achieving economies of scale with 3D printing.
Cost of buying and setting up of a 3D printer is high- It is said that however the 3D
printer in its entire lifetime will yield more money than it actually costs for, but at the
same time, high cost in setting up 3D printer is really high which keeps businesses and
individuals away from the technology.
Potential for job loss- 3D printing can potentially result in loss of jobs, this can be
attributed by saying that as a new technology comes in the market, and there is a
significant impact on the employment of the individuals as well.
Presentation Snapshots
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Task 2- Discussion
Discuss virtual reality as the evolution and future of digital communication. How
would virtual reality impact digital societies?
Note: You can include the following features: subheadings, bullet points, charts
and graphs as relevant.
Title: Virtual reality and its impact on digital societies (word count: suggested 500
words)
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People have been talking about virtual reality since the last decade, but it is now that
the technology has actually come into the market for further development,
improvement, testing and experimentation. There was a misconception that the only
use of virtual reality is to gamers, but with adoption of technology with time, the
technology found use in other industries as well(Makridakis,2017). VR helps in going
beyond the limitations of the physical tools and helps to do anything which can be
computed. The high end resolution offered by VR finds a lot of commercial use in the
present. For example; automobile companies use the technology to design cars and
the oil and gas industry use it to identify an ideal place to drill oil from wells.
VR finds a great use in simulation exercise as well; a tool which is shaping industries
across the globe, a person can now beforehand have knowledge of working on
expensive machinery through simulation done with the help of VR technology. Thus,
it helps the organizations in providing good and interactive training to its employees
as well. VR Headset has been finding a good market for themselves in 3D viewing,
gaming, simulation exercises, even in schools and colleges. Kids these days are using
the VR headsets to take a trip on the surface of moon and other planets(Martin,
2017). Virtual reality is finding great use these days in helping individual to focus on
their jobs, testing has been going under a program called cognitive rehab to further
understand the relevance and potential of the technology in building focus and
attention in the individuals. Human Phycology is another area where VR is finding a
great potential, people leverage on the societal stereotypes in their normal conduct.
But being in a virtual environment they create and manifest their own understanding
of the environment according to their utility. Adoption of the VR technology amongst
the millennial is stepping up, this can be attributed to the increasing penetration and
usage of social media. The people are become more open and interested to
investigate and experiment with the technology and use it at full potential. One of the
problems which can be associated with virtual reality and is a potential threat to its
adoption is the time consumed in developing a full-fledged graphically resolute 3D
structure, without the clarity and detailing the purpose of virtual reality gets
lost(Jung, Chung & Leue, 2015).
At the end the discussion can be concluded by saying, Virtual reality is thing of the
present and future and has a good relevance in industries like automobile, healthcare,
medicine, manufacturing, gaming and education. Provided people become open to
experimentation with the technology and trying to further leverage its usefulness in
the present world. Gaming is one industry which is beautifully exploiting the fruits of
virtual reality at its maximum potential and giving gamers a world of their own.
Task 3- Discussion
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Data centre facilities are heavy consumers of energy. The U.S. Department of
Energy estimates that data centre facilities consume up to 100 to 200 times more
energy than standard office building. Discuss how adopting green computing
techniques in data centre design can contribute to the sustainability of economic,
human and natural resources.
Title: Green computing techniques in data centre design (word count: suggested 500
words)
Development of Information and communication technology has paved the way for
sustained success for businesses and Accenture growth in human thinking. The ability
of the computers or devices to store data, retrieve data, manipulate bundles of data,
manage services like management, accounting etc. have put excessive pressure on
the environment in several ways. The growing dependability on data and usage of big
data analytics poses a tricky situation for data scientists and experts. The problem
here is how to reduce the impact of data centre facilities on the environment, and
how adopting green computing techniques in data centre design can contribute to
the sustainability of economic, human and natural resources(Hammadi & Mhamdi,
2014)
There are several contributing factors which has forced people to pay attention
towards green computing, some of the factors are:
- Lower utilization rates of servers
- Increasing cost of energy
- Increasing cooling requirement for the servers
- Growth in the internet and the ICT usage
- Increased pressure on the power density(Kaur & Chana, 2015)
The objectives for green designing for a sustainable future can be seen as:
- Reduction or minimizing the usage of non-renewable resources and optimum
utilization of the renewable resources.
- Manage the renewable resources to drive sustainability in the entire
ecosystem.
- Reduction in the non-renewable, toxic and harmful emission to the
environment and replace it with sustainable energy solutions.
The world is determined to adopt green computing to preserve the environment, help
in preserving the economic and social resources, but there are few challenges which
have to be addressed before ensuring the adoption of green computing, some of the
challenges are:
- A lot of awareness campaign and initiatives to promote green computing have
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to be made available to the public. Limited identification with green
computing further limits its adoption.
- Another greatest challenge is that every person on this planet should
understand the necessity of green computing, they have to understand if we
don’t focus on green computing, the environment will deplete in some
decades. Thus to sustain the environment, green computing techniques have
to be adopted(Oshins & Green, 2016)
Green computing has great benefits and the benefits are not limited to just the
consumer, company, industry, nation or the economy, but there are global benefits in
going with green computing. Green computing helps in reducing the energy demands
across the globe, cost implication and the energy wastage. Some of the benefits
which care identified in using green computing are:
Tangible Benefits Intangible Benefits Organizational Benefits
Better utilization of
resources
Simple and a reliable IT
infrastructure
Helps in reducing the
overall consumption of
energy
Reduction of E-waste Testing the application on
multiple platforms
becomes easy.
Helps in efficient
utilization of natural
resources
Space and energy saving Social benefits Optimizing the server
capacity and enhanced
performance
Improved and safer
lighting
Environmental benefits
like pollution control
Recycling of end of life
equipment’s
Energy efficiency
Advancement of
technology
Hence, it can be said with utmost clarity that the need of the hour is green
computing, organizations have to start using the techniques of green computing to
control the damage being done to the environment and create an environment of
business and environmental sustainability.
References
List all your references using the Harvard referencing style.
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 Chia, H.N. and Wu, B.M., 2015. Recent advances in 3D printing of
biomaterials. Journal of biological engineering, 9(1), p.4.
 Hammadi, A. and Mhamdi, L., 2014. A survey on architectures and energy efficiency
in data center networks. Computer Communications, 40, pp.1-21.
 Jung, T., Chung, N. and Leue, M.C., 2015. The determinants of recommendations to
use augmented reality technologies: The case of a Korean theme park. Tourism
management, 49, pp.75-86.
 Kaur, T. and Chana, I., 2015. Energy efficiency techniques in cloud computing: A
survey and taxonomy. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 48(2), p.22.
 Lu, B., Li, D. and Tian, X., 2015. Development trends in additive manufacturing and 3d
printing. Engineering, 1(1), pp.85-89.
 Makridakis, S., 2017. The forthcoming artificial intelligence (AI) revolution: Its impact
on society and firms. Futures, 90, pp.46-60.
 Martin, W.J., 2017. The global information society. Taylor & Francis.
 Oropallo, W. and Piegl, L.A., 2016. Ten challenges in 3D printing. Engineering with
Computers, 32(1), pp.135-148.
 Oshins, J. and Green, D.L., Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC, 2016. Virtual storage
target offload techniques. U.S. Patent 9,389,895.
 Stansbury, J.W. and Idacavage, M.J., 2016. 3D printing with polymers: Challenges
among expanding options and opportunities. Dental Materials, 32(1), pp.54-64.
 Ventola, C.L., 2014. Medical applications for 3D printing: current and projected
uses. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(10), p.704.
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