Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence Systems

Description

This research area explores several dimensions of sustainability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, with special emphasis on Machine Learning (ML) systems: environmental, economic, technical, social, and individual sustainability. The research aims to foster sustainability in all the stages of the MLOps/ML lifecycle.

Team

Silverio Martínez-Fernández
UPC (Principal Investigator)
Xavier Franch
UPC
Matias Martinez
UPC
Joel Castaño
UPC - PhD
Vincezo De Martino
Vincenzo De Martino
Univesity of Salerno - PhD
Alexandra González
UPC - PhD
 
Pol Plana
UPC - MSc
 
Santiago del Rey
UPC - PhD

Projects Overview

Title Type Goal
Platform for Creating Energy-efficient AI Systems – PRAISE
2025-2028
Collaboration Public-Private Establishing a comprehensive framework to certify that
AI systems developed by UPC and Coovally and deployed through the Coovally platform meet European
Green AI standards.

Cost Optimization of Artificial Intelligence Systems with Sustainable Practices
2025-2027

Technology transfer The project aims to tackle these industrial challenges utilizing the GAISSA-Optimizer tool. It consists of a web-based system that enables AI practitioners: (a) to simulate the return on investment (ROI) of implementing sustainable practices to achieve substantial cost savings; and (b) to integrate sustainable practices in the AI workflow of the company, leading to improved and standardized energy efficiency labels of AI systems.
Towards green AI-based software systems: an architecture-centric approach
2022-2025
Research To provide data scientists and software engineers tool-supported, architecture-centric methods for the modeling and development of green AI-based systems.
Generation of energy labels for certifying the efficiency of machine learning systems
2024
Technology transfer Studying the viability of tool-supported energy labels for certifying ML systems.
Greening AI with Software Engineering
2025
Research network Proposing to connect current developments in computer science applications with the urgency of transitioning to (and maintaining) a sustainable society.
Audiovisual and digital material for data engineering
2021-2022
Teaching innovation Defining and improving university courses regarding the technical sustainability of ML systems in the MLOps lifecycle, including best software engineering practices for ML systems.

Outcomes/Main Contributions

Research:

Technology Transfer:

  • Tools for environmental and economic sustainability of ML systems, such as:
  • Contributions to standards activities such as:
    • “ISO/IEC DTR 20226 Information technology — Artificial intelligence — Environmental sustainability aspects of AI systems”
    • The Spanish UNE working group CTN-UNE 71/SC 42/GT 1 "Evaluación de la eficiencia energética de los sistemas de inteligencia artificial": "Especificación UNE 0086 Medición del consumo energético, huella de carbono, consumo del agua y rendimiento de sistemas de Inteligencia Artificial".

Teaching:

Community:


Team Leader and Contact Person


Silverio Martínez-Fernández
Contact Silverio Martínez-Fernández