AT&T Awards Annual Environmental Fellowship Funding

Jul 01st, 2009

AT&T Awards Annual Environmental Fellowship Funding

Posted by Devicer @ 11:12 pm

AT&T today announced the 2009 recipients of fellowship awards through its Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship program. Contributions totaling $75,000 have been awarded to three academic research teams.

AT&T has a long history of enabling research on industrial ecology — a multidisciplinary science that investigates how the economy and the environment can coexist — through the AT&T Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship program. The annual program, which provides awards of $25,000 to three academic research teams at universities across the country, is designed to advance the development of research and help universities produce faculty and students who can contribute to solving global and regional environmental problems and help shape environmentally and economically efficient strategies.

Since its inception in 1993, the AT&T Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship program has provided environmental research fellowships to leading universities and their outstanding academic researchers across the country. In 2009, AT&T is supporting three academic research teams at the following universities:

The University of Texas, Austin, for a project titled “Examining the Tradeoffs in Energy, CO2, and Water for Transportation & ICT Choices.” This research will analyze the tradeoff between carbon emission and water consumption in transportation, and develop a quantitative model of the relative impacts into an interactive online tool for public, educational and analytical use.

University of Colorado, Denver, for a project titled “Diffusion of ICT Strategies for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in US Cities: Linking Industrial Ecology with Social Actors.” This project will explore how information and communications technology (ICT) strategies can be used to lower greenhouse gas emissions by providing assessment tools and decision support systems to homes, businesses and government bodies.

University at Albany, SUNY, for a project titled “Investigating Complex Systems: Can Communicating Light Signals Reduce Congestion and Emissions?” The research team will study how self-organization of traffic signals will lead to improved efficiency of traffic flow, reduced average vehicle delays and lower greenhouse emissions.

“Research projects such as these help create the sustainable and economic efficiencies needed for a successful future. We’re proud to support students, professors and universities in their efforts that will help our business and others reduce our environmental impact,” said Clair Krizov, AT&T Assistant Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety.

The AT&T Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship program is one way that AT&T collaborates with premier academic institutions and universities to advance education and research and to enhance the its ability to deliver innovative products and services. For a number of years, AT&T Labs has teamed with top universities around the world through research and mentoring programs. Through the Virtual University Research Initiative, AT&T selects a number of top universities and funds educational expenses of students who are working on their Ph.D. dissertations and are willing to do research in areas of interest to AT&T. Each year, AT&T also holds the AT&T Labs University Collaborations Symposium to bring together its researchers, university professors and interns to discuss current joint research projects and plans for future projects.

AT&T