Intel unveils efficient laptop university challenge

Intel Corporation has unveiled a challenge initiative for efficient laptop university at the European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) aimed at finding creative ways to‘re-fuel’ laptops on sustainable energy.

Vice President and General Manager, Intel in the EMEA, Mr. Christian Morales, said that the time is right to focus on environmental challenges and to utilize available resources in an efficient manner.

Europe, he said, has been driving the environmental agenda worldwide, campaigning in favour of responsible environmental policies, noting that European leaders agreed in March 2007 to have 20 per cent of their overall energy needs covered by renewables such as biomass, hydro, wind and solar by 2020.

According to him, the Intel’s challenge is in the spirit of innovation, which has been a driving force for the company since it sold the first commercial microprocessor back in 1971, so as to encourage young generations of Europeans to take an interest in technology and its positive applications.

Mr. Morales explained that by taking heed from Europe’s forward stance on environmental issues, Intel is inviting the EMEA seats of learning to devise ingenious and eco-friendly ways to recharge laptop batteries, stressing that the target will be to fuel a laptop for a full hour by using renewable energy sources.

“The laptops used in the experiment will be high-performance ones based on the leading-edge dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo processor, specifically designed to use energy efficiently,” he said.

The vice president also said that the university teams are sharpening their wits for the creative phase ahead, which will unfold over the next six months with the final submissions expected in October.

“The university with the winning solution will be awarded funding, in terms of assets, to support scientific research,” he said, added that the contending universities from all over Europe are invited to participate.

“Already, prestigious Universities have enrolled in the challenge to represent European grey matter in action,” he asserted, noting that Germany, for instance, would be represented by the Faculty of Informatics at
the Technical University of Munich, Ireland by the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Italy by Milan’s ‘Politecnico,’ the Netherlands by the Faculty of Industrial Engineering Design at Delft University of Technology.

He emphasised that others have expressed their interest and are likely to join the competition over the coming weeks, explaining that the type of solutions they are considering in teams mentioned an array of energy sources; from simple ones like wind, water, solar power, biomass, human, to more sophisticated ones like photovoltaic, fuel cells and sterling machines.

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