Are you passionate about the environmental impacts of technology? We are looking for digitally sustainable students to help us design and organise a brand‑new Sustainable Computing Hackathon, planned for late June / early July, in collaboration with neighbouring Manchester universities.

If you’re excited by sustainability, tech innovation, or event leadership, this is a standout opportunity to make a real impact. You will be supported and guided in planning in the Hackathon with regular planning meetings (in-person and online).

What’s the sustainable hackathon about?

You will get to choose the final themes of the challenge but the core aim is to help participants understand and reduce the environmental impact of computing.

Participants will work on prototype‑level solutions such as apps, tools, or guidance that empower individuals or institutions to monitor, estimate, or reduce their digital carbon footprint.

Some example challenge ideas that you can explore in this project are:

When’s the greenest time to compute?

Create an app or webpage that uses geolocation and carbon‑intensity forecasts (e.g., from ElectricityMaps) to recommend the best time to run energy‑intensive tasks. This could apply to everything from data processing to washing machines.

Reducing the carbon footprint of AI

Design tools or methodologies that help users understand and minimise the energy cost of AI tasks—whether searching, using pre‑trained models, or training new ones. This might involve exploring datasets like Hugging Face’s “AI Energy Score”.

Greener genAI queries

Build an interface that routes ChatGPT/genAI queries to run when and where electricity is cleanest, inspired by projects like neuralwatt or Greenpt.

Understanding cloud‑based emissions

Develop a method to estimate the carbon footprint of using different cloud providers for specific tasks, enabling users to choose the lowest‑impact option and track their own cloud usage.

This project is your opportunity to:

• Develop real leadership and organisational experience
• Drive positive change in greener computing
• Become a Greener Computing Champion 

Associated Badges: