Bringing Green Software to Computer Science Curriculum: Perspectives from Researchers and Educators

Abstract

Only recently has the software engineering community started conducting research on developing energy efficient software, or green software. This is shadowed when compared to the research already produced in the computer hardware community. While research in green software is rapidly increasing, several recent studies with software engineers show that they still miss techniques, knowledge, and tools to develop greener software. Indeed, all such studies suggest that green software should be part of a modern Computer Science Curriculum. In this paper, we present survey results from both researchers' and educators' perspective on green software education. These surveys confirm the lack of courses and educational material for teaching green software in current higher education. Additionally, we highlight three key pedagogical challenges in bringing green software to computer science curriculum and discussed existing solutions to address these key challenges. We firmly believe that 'green thinking"and the broad adoption of green software in computer science curriculum can greatly benefit our environment, society, and students in an era where software is everywhere and evolves in an unprecedented speed.