Exactum rooftop greenhouse experiment grows herbs

A greenhouse has been built on the roof of Exactum in a collaboration by the Department of Computer Science and the Fifth Dimension science project. To begin with, sedum grass is growing on the roof and tomatoes, courgettes and chilli in the greenhouse. The greenhouse is 9.4 square metres large.

The motivation for the computer scientists is the estimation that 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans are emitted by equipment using information technology. This is more than e.g. air traffic produces globally. To the scientists, this is reason enough to look into how to decrease the impact of information technology on global warming.

The facilities of the rooftop greenhouse were finished in 2011, and in the spring, the success of different utility plants has been tested. The scientists were driven by the idea that the greenhouse could be maintained with the excess heat from the servers.

Now, crops like tomatoes, rosemary, courgettes and various kinds of chilli are grown in Kumpula. A similar project is carried out in Paul Brenner’s Green Cloud super-computer project at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA.

Scientists have been up on the Exactum roof before. Before the greenhouse was installed, they were testing the cold resistance of computers in tents in winter. Some of the same servers are still outside after surviving for three winters. So far, the only problems have been observed with one type of fan. The majority of the computers have been able to survive the long-term outdoor cooling perfectly well. The results are very encouraging, since the cooling of the data centres stands for 20-40% of their power consumption, sometimes even more in older data centres.

The greenhouse on the roof is surrounded by an experimental green belt. It is a part of the Fifth Dimension project and World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. The purpose of the green belt is to discover the best solution for roof gardens in Finland.

Professor Jussi Kangasharju and researcher Mikko Pervilä are the Computer Science Department members of the project Heating up the fifth dimension.

See how the plants grow and the research progresses >>

Text: Minna Meriläinen-Tenhu
Photo: Mikko Pervilä
Translation: Marina Kurtén
 

Created date

14.08.2012 - 16:44

Application to Finnish computer science programmes 16 Mar-6 Apr 2016

 
The joint application to computer science programmes given in Finnish is open now.
 
 

Photo: Veikko Somerpuro 2016

 

International BOI 2016 programming contest at the Department of Computer Science

 

The best young programmers around the Baltic Sea will compete in May 2016 at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki in Baltic Olympiad in Informatics 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

Baltic Olympiad in Informatics (BOI) is a programming contest for countries around the Baltic Sea. The contest has been organized since 1995. This year BOI will take place in Helsinki May 11-15. The contest venue is the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki.

Unique open online programming course starts again at Helsinki University

This is the fifth year in a row that the massive open online course (MOOC) will start at the University of Helsinki. Finns can take the course just for fun, as a part of their upper-secondary education, or even as an entrance exam to the university.

The course is free of charge, and it is so basic that students with no experience of programming can follow it.

Sasu Tarkoma new head of the Department of Computer Science

Since Jukka Paakki announced that he will step down from the post of head of the department on 1 January 2016, Professor Sasu Tarkoma has been elected the new head for the period 1 January 2016-31 December 2017. There were a total of 7 applicants for the position, out of whom the rector decided to appoint Tarkoma on the basis of the proposal by the dean of the Faculty of Science.

The staff of the department would like to congratulate Sasu and wish him success in his new duties. This is a good opportunity to ask our new leader some questions.