Colloquium C. Piguet – Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Electronics for a greener planet”

Abstract: Engineers are not recognized for what they do. According to the answers to a questionnaire, engineers are not sensitive to environmental problems, quality of life and social aspects. However, concerning energy, water, carbon emissions, engineers are able to propose information processing systems aiming at improving the state of our planet. But today, they are not recognized for this: it is time to change the image of engineers.  Our goal is to use information processing technologies to massively reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Predictions for the year 2050 indicate that almost 100% of energy will be produced from renewable sources. So, on the one hand, all electronic devices should consume much less energy in the future, and on the other hand, they should also reduce their production energy. But the most important thing will be their use in many areas such as transportation, agriculture, lighting, building control, medical monitoring, etc., this to reduce the pressure on our planet. Nevertheless, this will not be enough, and behavioral changes will be necessary. 

Biography of Christian Piguet

Christian Piguet (master EPFL in 1974, doctorate EPFL in 1981) has been working since 1974 at the Centre Electronique Horloger SA in Neuchâtel, where he develops design tools, integrated circuits and very low power microprocessors. In 1984, he joined the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique SA (CSEM) where he was successively sector manager, scientific coordinator and then head of the low-power program for the Microelectronics Division. His interest lies in the design of very low power integrated circuits, including microprocessors, memories and standard cell libraries, including dynamic and static power reduction and the effects of technological variations. He is retired since 2016. Christian Piguet was a professor at EPFL. He still teaches at the University of Lugano. He is the author of about 30 patents, as well as more than 250 scientific publications and a few books. He has also been a member of a large number of program committees of international conferences.