The FERNS project is an MSCA Doctoral Network aiming to design eco-friendly electronics and accelerate their uptake. This multi-disciplinary project spans across the fields of material science, engineering, social science and business to acquire a holistic perspective of the field of sustainable electronics. In DIPSA, we will investigate the system software stack for disposable electronic devices, focussing on sensors.

The assumed context is that sensor devices are powered by minimal batteries which are charged through energy harvesting devices that capture energy from ambient environmental sources such as light, heat, and mechanical motion. For the sensors to complete their tasks of capturing and processing sensor data, temporarily storing data and transmitting it over radio signals, they need to manage energy budgets carefully. There are several degrees of freedom that can be leveraged to maximise the utility of the available energy, among which: scheduling tasks based on predicted energy availability, and adapting the precision of tasks to improve the trade-off between energy-efficiency, timeliness and quality-of-service.

This research project will combine insights from the burgeoning field of intermittent computing and from transprecise computing. Intermittent computing investigates the consequences of intermittent power supplies on computing systems design. Transprecision computing studies the trade-off between accuracy, performance and energy consumption when the precision of the computation is varied in a controlled manner. The focus of the project will be on the design of the system software, which includes runtime systems and operating systems.

One PhD position will be available to investigate these issues. The position is salaried and will include a secondment at one of the partner institutions in the project. The project will provide for a broad training in transferable skills and sustainable practices. The intended start date is 1 April 2026.