Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 21 hours ago
Benjamin Lee, Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania
Public Lecture Title: Toward Sustainable Data Centers for Artificial Intelligence
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 5:10 pm, Stackhouse Theater
As the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to proliferate, we must assess and mitigate its energy demands and environmental impact. This talk will survey strategies for mitigating the energy used by AI computation and datacenter infrastructure, drawing on data and experiences from industrial, hyperscale systems. First, we analyze the energy and carbon implications of super-linear AI growth. Second, we re-think datacenter infrastructure and define a solution space for sustainable computation with renewable energy, utility-scale batteries, and job scheduling. Finally, we develop strategies for datacenter demand response, incentivizing computation to modulate power usage in ways that reflect their performance goals. In summary, the talk provides a broad perspective on sustainable computing and outlines the many remaining directions for future work.
Benjamin Lee, Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania
Public Lecture Title: Toward Sustainable Data Centers for Artificial Intelligence
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 5:10 pm, Stackhouse Theater
As the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to proliferate, we must assess and mitigate its energy demands and environmental impact. This talk will survey strategies for mitigating the energy used by AI computation and datacenter infrastructure, drawing on data and experiences from industrial, hyperscale systems. First, we analyze the energy and carbon implications of super-linear AI growth. Second, we re-think datacenter infrastructure and define a solution space for sustainable computation with renewable energy, utility-scale batteries, and job scheduling. Finally, we develop strategies for datacenter demand response, incentivizing computation to modulate power usage in ways that reflect their performance goals. In summary, the talk provides a broad perspective on sustainable computing and outlines the many remaining directions for future work.
