With Earth Day right around the corner, I had a chance to sit in on a round table discussion with Microsofties and show you how they see the environment becoming increasingly more important to industry and consumers. You will hear from Microsoft Research's Feng Zhao, Environmental Technologist Mark Aggar, Program Manager Stephen Berard (he's behind some of the coolest power features in Windows), Marketing Communications Manager Michael Walsh, and a Microsoftie that on her own initiative started an environment-focused group internally: Tina Tam.
The crew covers topics such as sustainable computing now and in the future. One of my favorite points was about how sleep states of electronics really work and how much power something uses in the "off" state--is it really off? Much like safety in cars today has become a standard, designing with the environment in mind is quickly rising in priority and will hopefully soon be the norm, according to Mark.
This is Part I of a two part discussion, the second will cover what opportunities there are for students in this space.
How important is the environment to you now... what will it take for you to act?