An international Master's program in green ICT as a contribution to sustainable development

Various principles of sustainable development are currently being integrated into national policies and programs. Such principles relate to a range of aspects of human activities requiring urgent attention, including heating, mobility, food security, and sustainable agriculture. One of the fields contributing to the transition towards a sustainable society is that of green information and communication technologies (ICT). Therefore, the implementation of educational programs in green ICT is important in ensuring further ICT development around sustainability concerns. This article describes the development of an international Master's degree program named Pervasive computing and communications for sustainable development (PERCCOM) by an international consortium, which aimed to combine advanced ICT with environmental, economic, and social awareness. The article presents background information regarding the role of the ICT sector in environmental challenges, and a review of the literature, in order to understand what is required of ICT and green ICT graduates. The curriculum of the PERCCOM program is then described and findings on program improvement are reported. The article is aimed at academic and research professionals in the fields of sustainable development and green technologies, with the goal of improving educational initiatives to address the societal demand for sustainable development. The findings reported here contribute toward the search for a solution for sustainability, especially regarding environmental issues, among educating professionals with high expertise in networking, computing, and programming, who are able to design, develop, deploy, and maintain both pervasive computing systems and communication architectures for sustainable development. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.