HP Innovation Journal Issue 06: Spring 2017 | Page 19
TECHNOLOGIES FOR EVERYONE
Energy for everyone
By Chandrakant D. Patel, HP Chief Engineer and Senior Fellow, HP; Anna Tang, Executive Assistant
and Coordinator, HP Affinity Groups and Virtual Communities, HP
This is the first article in a new series entitled
“Technologies for Everyone.” The series will share
a subset of technical and engineering fundamental
courseware available on “Brain Candy” — HP’s internal
branded and curated learning platform.
T
he 21st century innovations — driv-
en by social, economic and ecological
Megatrends — unite physical and digital
systems to drive efficiency and conserve re-
sources. As discussed in the ‘Inside the Engine
Room’ article, these innovations are systemic
and are built with multiple engineering disci-
plines and technologies. HP examples include
2D presses such as Indigo and HP Page Wide
Web Press, 3D print engines, management of
large number of client devices, and workplace
and healthcare of tomorrow initiatives. The tech-
nology stack needed for these innovations starts
with the use of multiple engineering disciplines
to build flexible and configurable devices. We
then build on top of it with smart layers such
as machine learning and autonomous control.
The entire solution is supported by end-to-end
security.
Success in this multidisciplinary stack
requires depth in at least one discipline, and
breadth in a range of disciplines and technol-
ogies. And given the scale of the opportuni-
ty space, all of HP, not just engineers, must
come together to contribute to these exciting
systemic innovations.
The “Technologies for Everyone” series,
created on Brain Candy, is motivated by the
need to make fundamental technical disciplines
readily available to everyone at HP. Employees
interested in expanding their breadth and depth
of knowledge can easily tap into this resource
and find themselves immersed in a wealth of
disciplines. Featured in this series is a compila-
tion of introductory courses broken down into
several modules. Our first course, “Energy for
Everyone,” taught by Chandrakant Patel, HP’s
Chief Engineer and Senior Fellow, is on the fun-
damental understanding of energy from a 1st
and 2nd law of thermodynamics perspective.
This course is designed to explain the impor-
tance of energy and sustainability in the HP
portfolio.
The “Technologies for Everyone” series
provide a holistic perspective of the subject.
“Energy for Everyone” takes a big picture view
by considering both the supply and demand
side. The supply side is the pool of available
energy. The demand side consists of the avail-
able energy used by the physical ecosystem
and the IT ecosystem. This view provides us
great insight. As an example, large scale IT data
centers draw roughly about 1-20 megawatts of
power. A megawatt can power approximately
one thousand US homes. Assume that US has
5000 data centers at an average power of 5
megawatts. The total power needed by these
5,000-data center is 25 gigawatts. 25 gigawatts
are roughly equal to the power generated by 25
nuclear power plants!
Now consider the growth opportunities in
India where the “Digital India” initiative, launched
by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is fo-
cused on connecting the 1.2 billion people in
the country. Scaling the US data center model
suggests that India would need to set aside 100
gigawatts of supply side to power the data cen-
ters necessary to connect the country’s entire
population, but the supply side power genera-
tion in India is about 300 gigawatts. Clearly, data
centers cannot take up one third of the supply
side. Therefore, the current US deployment
model will not work for India. This is an oppor-
tunity to create a new deployment model with
HP’s portfolio of end-point devices.
This is a great example of the kind of
knowledge being shared and problem solving
discussions being had in the “Technology for
Everyone” courses.
An HP Labs director once opined, “If only HP
knows what HP knows.” Indeed, there is great
wealth of knowledge in HP’s multidisciplinary
engine room. And the HP technical contributors
are the faculty. This article serves as a call to join
the learn, teach, and guide movement by creat-
ing content on Brain Candy in the “Technology
for Everyone” series.
To learn more about this course or share ideas for future
courses please contact Anna Tag at [email protected].
Chandrakant D. Patel is a distinguished
Senior Fellow and Chief Engineer at HP.
In 2014, he was inducted into the Silicon
Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.
@joulespatel
Anna Tang is an executive assistant to
the Chief Engineer Office. She helps drive
technical community programs. She re-
ceived her Bachelors of Art in Psychology
from University of California, Los Angeles.
Issue 6 · Spring 2017 · Innovation Journal 19