BU engineer Siddharth Ramachandran is developing a technology that could cut the power needed to transmit data—and maybe one day improve brain imaging
You might not think that hours of scrolling on TikTok or searching on Google impacts the environment the way that driving a gas-guzzling car does, but everything you do online sucks up energy and resources—and comes with a climate cost. With a majority of the planet now online, the 150 to 1,000 grams of carbon dioxide generated by every hour of video calling or streaming quickly adds up. Some have estimated that four hours of watching Netflix can have a similar carbon impact to driving a car one mile. And artificial intelligence is only intensifying the power drain, requiring vast resources to fuel its data-heavy needs. Microsoft reportedly struck a deal earlier this year to fire up a defunct nuclear power station just to propel its cloud computing and AI systems.
With more and more data centers popping up across the world—and more and more online content being shared and watched every day—could we make our digital world greener?
“This is an extremely complex problem that requires a massive convergence in multiple planes and axes—scientists, engineers, planners; everything needs to come together,” says Boston University electrical and computer engineer Siddharth Ramachandran. He’s working on a technology that could potentially help make the internet faster and more efficient—and cut its power consumption.
Ramachandran is an expert in optics and photonics—the use and manipulation of light. It’s light that carries the data zipping down fiber optic cables to and from your home or office. For more than a decade, Ramachandran, a BU College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Engineering, has been developing a way of using twisted beams of light to more reliably and efficiently transmit data. He’s found the corkscrew-shaped beams, a form of structured light, could share up to 50 times more data than current networks.
“We’ve demonstrated the ability to use optical fibers that will allow you to send much higher bandwidth information,” says Ramachandran. The technology could be ready to apply in as little as five years.