Probabilistic Electronics & Sustainable Literacy

Krishna V. PalemKenneth and Audrey Kennedy ProfessorProfessor of Computer Science,Electrical and Computer Engineering, and StatisticsBaker Institute Rice Scholar,Director, Institute of Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics Rice University - Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Learning by Doing with I-Slate

VISEN

Probabilistic Electronics

Conventional Conventional(low energy)

Probabilistic(low energy)

Krishna V Palem, “Energy Aware Computing Through Probabilistic Switching: A Study of Limits,” in IEEE Transactions on Computers, Volume 54(9), pp. 1123-1137, September 2005.

Energy Accuracy

Battery life

Energy Accuracy

Battery life

Energy

Accuracy

Battery life

Probabilistic Electronics and Perception

Conventional modelOver-engineered

HIGH ENERGY

Probabilistic modelAdequately engineered

LOW ENERGY

Visually tolerable

errors

CAN YOU USTNNDERAD TIHS STNECNEE?

Cognitive filling

Societal Challenge and a Dire Need for Education

Primary schools with less than 3 teachers*417,389

105,964,434 Students with no access to electricity*

Resource Challenged Schools & Students in India

Our Test School in India

*Source: District Information System for Education (DISE) (http://www.dise.in)

Our Test School and The Surrounding Village

Primary SchoolMohd. Hussainpalli,

(Near Hyderabad), India

Socio-Economics of Sustainable Electronics

Developed nations

Conventional electronic devices Education

Efficiency

Entertainment

Developing nations

Probabilistic electronics

I-Slate

Rural education

Sustainable Literacy: Learning by Doing

Traditional Slate I-SlateVS.

No electricityEnergy sustainable

Needs teachersNot literacy sustainable

Ultra low costEconomically sustainable

Photovoltaic cells

Renewable electric source (solar)Energy sustainable

No need for teachersLiteracy sustainable

Ultra low costEconomically sustainableLearning by Doing

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1978

Literacy Sustainability

Herbert A Simon

* Krishna” Palem, Al Barr, Avinash Lingamneni, Vincent Mooney, Rajeswari Pingali, Harini Sampath, Jayanthi Sivaswamy, “I-Slate, Ethnomathematics and Rural Education IEEE Conference on Technologies for Humanitarian Challenges, 2009

The I-Slate Prototype

I-Slate Prototype In Practice

Grade 5 students

Delivering Sustainable Literacy in India

ISAID, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Integration

Pedagogy and content

VISEN Center Rice University

Caltech

Technology

ViDAL, Hyderabad

ViDAL was setup in 2004 to promote development of rural communities in India through information and communication technologies. It launched a award-winning project called “Computers on Wheels’ for people-centered development.

Three Dimensions of Sustainability

Energy sustainabilityUse of renewable energy sources

Literacy sustainabilityLearning by doing

?Cost sustainability

What is Cost Sustainability ?

1 year 5 years 10 years

WITHOUT I-SLATEWITH

I-SLATE

Self-sustaining economic growth through literacy

Developmental EconomicsCost

Sustainability

Amartya SenThe Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1998

The Nobel Prize in Peace, 2006

Muhammad Yunus

Micro-finance

Skill Income

Value to society

Beyond the I-Slate through Probabilistic Electronics?

Cost

Quality

Severely Constrained

•No electricity•No teachers•Low per-capita income

No constraintsProbabilistic Machine Learning

Energy sustainable

Ultra-low energy

Entertainment

Education

Efficiency