Transient Electronics for Sustainable ICT in DigitaL Agriculture
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Engineering
Abstract
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.
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.
Description | A Proactive Approach to the Recovery and Recycling of Photovoltaic Modules (APOLLO) |
Amount | £499,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2024 |
Description | Automated Nano AnaLysing, characterisatiOn and additive packaGing sUitE (ANALOGUE) |
Amount | £3,076,010 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/Y015215/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2024 |
End | 01/2027 |
Description | UK-Graft |
Amount | £2,100,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2024 |
End | 05/2025 |
Description | Colloboration with Acceleronix |
Organisation | Accelonix |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Establishments of a packaging laboratory to demonstrate to partners and provide proof of concepts |
Collaborator Contribution | Provided in-kind contributions to the team and enhanced networking opportunities |
Impact | Led to collaboration with a company and the subsequent award of an InnovateUK grant |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Colloboration with Inseto |
Organisation | Inseto UK Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Development of a semiconductor packaging laboratory to show demonstrations |
Collaborator Contribution | Support of maintenance/consumables |
Impact | Established further colloborations Supported the award of an EPSRC Grant - ANALOGUE |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Course given on Sustainable electronics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | I undertook a three-part course at the UNESP University in Brazil. Participants included undergraduate students, postgraduate students, members of the public colleges and the general public each part consisted of one half hour lecture followed by a 30 minute practical seminar |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Delivery of a Webinar for IMAPS |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | I presented a one hour seminar on 'sustainable electronics' to be semiconductor packaging community in the UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Delivery of outreach at Hillhead primary school |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Shoushous Zhang (a researcher aligned with the project) undertook outreach by participating in the school science day, demonstrating the importance of sustainable energy |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Organisational of workshop with CENSIS/user engagement forum for GEOPIC project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | We undertook the oragisation of a Sustainable Electroncis semianr at the ARC in Glasgow. This was a one-day event to highlight the challenges in sustainability within the electronics sector. We have speakers from industry and academia and University of Glasgow |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Presentation at IEEE SUSTECH Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Jeff Kettle presented work on life cycle assessment of semiconductor electronics devices |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Presentation at Innolae |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Jonathan Harwell and Diego Diaz presented work at Innolae conference in Cambridge |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Presentation at MRS Boston |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Jonathan Harwell presented work at MRS Boston |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Presentation at SBPMat |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Jeff Kettle presented at SBPMat (The Brazilian MRS) an invited talk |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Sustainable electronics lecture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | I undertook a lecture and course on sustainable electronics to engineering students at the University of Glasgow as an optional element to their "Consumer Electronics" course |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Webinar for the KTN on Sustainable Photonics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | I presented a seminar organised by the electronic sensors and Photonics KTN on sustainability challenges in the sector. My talk was around 20 mins long and was complimented by 3 talks from indsutry |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |