IIIT-H team leads efforts to build greener software systems

Hyderabad: A team of researchers at IIIT Hyderabad, led by Dr Karthik Vaidhyanathan, is breaking new ground in the fight against technology’s growing environmental footprint, especially in the form of vastly increased electricity consumption. Their work on self-adaptive software systems aims to make modern technology greener, more efficient and better equipped to handle real-world challenges.
The research, which focuses on AI-enabled systems and other software architectures, enables applications to adjust their behaviour or structure in real time, reducing energy consumption while maintaining performance. This approach addresses growing concerns about the environmental impact of technology, including data centres that are consuming 2 per cent of global electricity.
The team’s Eco-MLS system uses AI to dynamically switch between simpler and more complex models depending on the task, reducing energy use by up to 80 per cent without compromising accuracy. “Our work goes beyond reducing costs or emissions—it’s about building adaptable systems that thrive in a changing world,” said Dr Vaidhyanathan.
Their research extends beyond AI, applying self-adaptive techniques to serverless functions and microservices that power everyday apps. For instance, the system can reroute requests to energy-efficient servers, even if it slightly increases response time to cut emissions significantly.
With studies showing that 64 per cent of system outages are due to misconfigurations and 91 per cent of AI models degrade over time, IIIT Hyderabad’s solutions are timely. As industries face increasing pressure to reduce carbon footprints, self-adaptive systems could play a key role in creating a sustainable technological future.
The researchers are exploring applications in generative AI systems and edge-cloud operations, highlighting the importance of collaboration between academia and industry.