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Fakultät für Informatik

SPEAR Wins the Sustainability Award of our Department

The dean of the department hands out the certificate for the award to Maximilian Krebs © Michael Weißenborn
(left to right) Maximilian Krebs, Ben Hermann, Jens Teubner (Dean of the department of computer science)
In its first iteration we won the Sustainability Award in the category Technical Sustainability.

Our research project SPEAR - Static Analysis for Predicting the Energy Consumption of Programs has won the sustainability award of our department. The department of computer science has created the award to honor the contributions of project teams and individuals for sustainability in the context of computer science. The award was given in two categories: social sustainability and technical sustainability. 

SPEAR was chosen in the technical sustainability category. It is a tool for the static analysis of C/C++ code. The tool, which is based on a Maximilian Krebs' bachelor thesis, offers developers the opportunity to estimate the impact of their code on the expected energy consumption of the program. This offers a significant potential for saving CO2 emissions.  

The jury particularly appreciated the strong computer science connection and the proximity to research with exciting and challenging questions as well as the high degree of innovation and potential overall effect (also beyond the TU).  The jury also considered a departmental poll. The voices from the department described the approach as "very important, as there is a lot of inefficient software" and as an "innovative tool that can be used 'hands on' and has a direct impact". The potential reach was also seen here: "Potential to raise awareness of energy efficiency in software development [...] not only research, but also industry".

We are very grateful to the jury for being chosen out of strong competition. We would also like to thank the alumni association for generously providing the prize money for the award. The SPEAR team will continue working on the project and provide tools for developers to be aware of the energy impact of their work.