On 3rd October 2023 at 11:00h the CTTC will host the seminar “Problematizing the sustainability of 5G/6G networks and devising alternative ways forward”. In this seminar Prof. Cristina Cano will present:
Abstract
Mobile communications networks are increasingly advocated as enablers for environmental sustainability (5G/6G for sustainability)due to their potential induced effects towards green transitions. Despite this potential, their own impact on sustainability is also acknowledged, and there are substantial research efforts to make these networks more sustainable via reducing their direct effects (sustainable 5G/6G). Sustainability of these networks is then seen as a trade-off between induced benefits and direct effects. However, I will argue in this talk, that there is an urgent need to critically problematize both5G/6G for sustainability and sustainable 5G/6G. The former relies on highly speculative predictions and takes limited account of negative induced effects, while the latter focuses on energy efficiency metrics, obscuring potential increasing absolute energy demand and other environmental dimensions, involving elements difficult to compare. In this talk, I will also call for alternative ways forward to current mobile network development and to the analysis of its potential effects on sustainability.
Bio
Prof. Cristina Cano holds a Ph.D. (2011) in Information, Communication and Audiovisual Media Technologies from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). She was a research fellow in the Hamilton Institute of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (2012-2014), in Trinity College Dublin (2015-2016) and in Inria- Lille in France (first half of 2016). Currently, she is an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Telecomunications of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), where she mainly teaches maths courses. She is also a research member of the WINE group at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), also at UOC. Her research interests includes coexistence of wireless heterogeneous networks and distributed resource allocation. Recently, she becomes interested in science and technology studies, trying to understand the intertwining of the social and the technological in the development of wireless networks, with special interest in the environmental impact of mobile networks. Although it says little about the quality of her research, it’s probably worth to mention that she appeared in the inaugural list “Rising Stars in Networking/Communications” of the N2Women organisation and that she has published 20 JCR journals and more than 30 conference articles (5 of them received the best paper award), attracting more than 2000 citations.
This talk is open to whoever interested from the research community
Live event: Click here
Venue: CTTC's Auditorium, Building B4, Av. Carl Friedrich Gauss, 7, PMT, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona) - 11:00h-