Systems Engineering for Sustainable Development

Greetings from the famous room N101 in the Computer Science and Information Technology building at the Australian National University in Canberra. I am helping teach "Systems Engineering for Software Engineers" (COMP3530 and COMP6353). This week's topic is Sustainability. , with Dr Lorrae van Kerkhoff, from the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society and myself, Tom Worthington, from the ANU Research School of Computer Science and member of the ANU Climate Change Institute. This may seem a strange topic and speakers for a software engineering course, but there is little point in just teaching the students to build a new App with dancing cats. As professionals the graduates need to be worrying about the social effects of what they do. I ask the students "How Green is My Computer?" and talk to them about ICT Sustainability. The issue for me is how to address environmental concerns while meeting social goals.