Perceptions of Sustainability Aspects in Computing

Abstract

The importance of sustainability and the need of research on how to effectively reach it in different knowledge areas have been widely spread out. In computer science however, although there are several groups interested in the theme, the discussions on sustainability are still incipient. In the Brazilian community, researchers from Human-Computer Interaction have put focus on these issues and formalized a research challenge emphasizing the need of investigation about sustainability in computing. Aiming to contribute in this direction, collecting and evaluating the perceptions of the Brazilian computer science community on the theme, this paper presents the results of a questionnaire answered by 128 students, professors and other professionals. The results suggest that the community understands that the topic is relevant to computer science; it should consider software and hardware together and an implicit conscience about the need of consider social, economic and environmental aspects when judging if a computer science solution is sustainable.