Probabilistic Electronics & Sustainable Literacy

Krishna V. Palem Kenneth and Audrey Kennedy Professor Professor of Computer Science, Director, Institute for Sustainable Nanoelectronics, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Learning by Doing with I-Slate

VISEN

Probabilistic Electronics

Conventional Conventional (low energy)

Probabilistic (low energy)

Krishna V Palem, “Energy Aware Computing Through Probabilistic Switching: A Study of Limits,” in IEEE Transactions on Computers, Volume 54(9), pp. 1123-1137, September 2005.

Energy Accuracy

Battery life

Energy Accuracy

Battery life

Energy

Accuracy

Battery life

Probabilistic Electronics and Perception

Conventional model Over-engineered

HIGH ENERGY

Probabilistic model Adequately engineered

LOW ENERGY

Visually tolerable

errors

CAN YOU USTNNDERAD TIHS STNECNEE?

Cognitive filling

Societal Challenge and a Dire Need for Education

Primary schools with less than 3 teachers* 417,389

105,964,434 Students with no access to electricity*

Resource Challenged Schools & Students in India

Our Test School in India

*Source: District Information System for Education (DISE) (http://www.dise.in)

Our Test School and The Surrounding Village

Socio-Economics of Sustainable Electronics

Developed nations

Conventional electronic devices Education

Efficiency Entertainment

Developing nations

Probabilistic electronics

I-Slate

Rural

education

Sustainable Literacy: Learning by Doing

Traditional Slate I-Slate VS.

No electricity Energy sustainable

Needs teachers Not literacy sustainable

Ultra low cost Economically sustainable

Photovoltaic cells

Renewable electric source (solar) Energy sustainable

No need for teachers Literacy sustainable

Ultra low cost Economically sustainable

I-Slate Prototype In Practice

Delivering Sustainable Literacy in India

ISAID, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Integration

Pedagogy and content

VISEN Center Rice University

Caltech

ViDAL, Hyderabad

ViDAL was setup in 2004 to promote development of rural communities in India through information and communication technologies. It launched a award-winning project called “Computers on Wheels’ for people-centered development.

Three Dimensions of Sustainability

Energy sustainability Use of renewable energy sources

Literacy sustainability Learning by doing ?

Cost sustainability

What is Cost Sustainability ?

1 year 5 years 10 years

WITHOUT I-SLATE WITH

I-SLATE

Self-sustaining economic growth through literacy

Developmental Economics Cost

Sustainability

Amartya Sen The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1998

The Nobel Prize in Peace, 2006

Muhammad Yunus

Micro-finance

Skill Income Value to society

Intelligent software assistant

Beyond the I-Slate through Probabilistic Electronics?

Cost

Quality

Severely Constrained • No electricity • No teachers • Low per-capita income

No constraints Probabilistic Machine Learning

Energy sustainable

Ultra-low energy

Entertainment

Education

Efficiency