Ask HN: Where can I work as a software engineer to combat large global problems?

I have a Ph.D. in CS and enjoy solving open-ended technical challenges. I have a decent hands-on experience in operating systems and software engineering. I’ve been working as a full-stack engineer building Android products for almost a decade now.

I want to switch to work on larger global problems that are also technically challenging. So far I’ve recognized following job profiles-

Combatting climate change:

* Reducing the power consumption of data centers. Data centers consume ~2% of global electricity consumption and are estimated to consume up to 8% by 2030 due to the ML boom. Example roles: Site efficiency teams in Big 4.

* Building systems to support autonomous vehicles. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor to U.S. GHG emissions. Autonomous vehicles are projected to reduce per-mile greenhouse gas emissions by up to 94%. Example roles: system performance teams at getcruise.com, tri.global

I am wondering if there are other software engineering/research roles I should apply to. Roles that combat global challenges and are also technically interesting.

30 points | by talking_panda 1653 days ago

14 comments

  • rhn_mk1 1653 days ago
    Artificial Intelligence safety is considered by some to be the biggest, and potentially most dangerous challenge in the coming decades.

    I've recently found a post on the Effective Altruism forum encouraging people to consider starting a computer security career to help mitigate the AI risk:

    https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZJiCfwTy5dC4CoxqA/...

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    • nairboon 1652 days ago
      By others it is considered not much of a practical challenge at all. However, automation is.
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      • muzani 1652 days ago
        Opinion is split. The danger of AI is exponentially increasing power and capability. We're not there yet, but we do, it could be like nuclear power.
  • cottonseed 1652 days ago
    Come work at the Broad Institute and work on open science to understand and improve human health: https://www.broadinstitute.org/about-us. My group isn't hiring right now, but others are: https://www.broadinstitute.org/careers/software-engineering. edit: My email is in my profile. Reach out if you have any questions.
  • tchadwick 1653 days ago
    The company I work for is hiring. https://seedotrun.com. We are a start-up working on autonomous agriculture. Lots of benefits to our design compared to a traditional tractor in regards to GHG, efficiency, farmer well-being, and food security.

    There are a number of companies like us popping up. Bear Flag Robotics in California is another example.

    thomas at seedotrun.com if interested.

  • Top19 1653 days ago
    Mass Organ Harvesting and Mass Killing in Xinjiang.

    If you are familiar with ICS security / systems, you can literally see the incinerators with dashboards of “humans per hour” and things like that.

    Anyone with data wrangling skills (BigQuery, DataPrep, stuff like that), setting up cloud infra, or even just really good hard-code internetting research skills would be appreciated.

    001-alias-aw@outlook.com

    I actually wouldn’t have minded posting my real name, but it seemed somehow like it would take away from my post unless I used a cool anonymous (but not really) alias.

  • arandr0x 1652 days ago
    Public transit systems do have need of programs for control, infrastructure maintenance and so on, as do railroads.

    There's (some) work in conservation (meaning ecological habitats and stuff) if you care about biodiversity, but it mostly requires GIS skills.

    A lot of "global problems" (like cancer) are also local problems (like different environmental exposures or individual genetic profiles). It's hard even while working at a global problem to have a solution with global impact. This cannot be understated.

    There are some decently big problems in mining (where mining certain compounds has become exponentially harder) and the industry does not typically have a lot of software talent already. However, it can be quite difficult to get into depending on your geographical location.

    Have you considered working for the government?

  • imhoguy 1651 days ago
    Crack the Bitcoin. You will save TWhs of electricity, mostly coal-fueled https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21276544
  • david_at 1653 days ago
    I hope I'm not being too brash in mentioning my own project. https://www.grassland.network

    We're looking for people who have Rust/C++ or Pytorch/Tensorflow experience.

  • 2rsf 1652 days ago
    Not totally relevant but I'm not sure autonomous vehicles are the right way to reducing greenhouse gas emission, public transportation combined with proper urban planning seems like a much more efficient way in this context
  • gitgud 1653 days ago
    These are a couple of high level problems...

    A large global problem is still starvation, millions of people dying every year. Work on helping countries feed themselves.

    Majority of the world does not have access to internet, decentralised peer to peer networks could help here.

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    • talking_panda 1653 days ago
      True. Starvation is a big problem. I don't know if software can even help here, but do you know of companies taking such an approach to solving this?

      Thanks for the pointer about the internet. I will check out Project Loon and Internet.org.

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      • gitgud 1652 days ago
        Software is used to help solve almost every single problem on the planet so I'm sure there's a way to help the problem of starvation in poorer countries. Not sure of any specific companies, but that doesn't mean there's no need for it.

        Goodluck, hope you find something!

    • johnsimer 1653 days ago
      fyi there are projections showing that in the 2040s (if not 2030s) the food supply could collapse from global warming, causing mass starvation
  • x520ca 1652 days ago
    The company I am working for, https://nordsense.com is hiring. We are a start-up working on trash management and pickup optimization for cities and facilities around the world.

    We have our sensors out in the wild in SF / Copenhagen and has shown tremendous improvements in efficiencies of up to 60% compared to under optimized pickups. Garbage is definitely something we need to be better at for a sustainable world in a global scale.

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    • DrScump 1652 days ago
      Just FYI: your web page doesn't show any openings that I can see. Also, attempting to subscribe to the email alerts results in no response to the Submit button (using Brave on Android). And I live maybe 2 miles from your Sunnyvale office!
  • mattef 1652 days ago
    Hi talking_panda! I found myself in a very similar position four years ago, quitting my career at the time (the electric/autonomous vehicle industry) to find more fulfilling, meaningful, and ultimately tangibly impactful work. Along the way, I found a lot of answers to my questions from Effective Altruism — using evidence and reason to do the most good.

    I like their framework of looking for cause areas that are large (you're already looking for this), tractable (so your work might actually result in something), and neglected (where your marginal impact is highest). That'll probably lead you toward:

    1) Global poverty & public health: The evidence here is vast, and the marginal impact is huge in the developing world, where simple interventions like giving people money (GiveDirectly) or anti-malarial bednets (Against Malaria Foundation) save a life at the cost of ~$2,000. GiveWell does an excellent job evaluating these charities. This is where I ended up, but in the for-profit sector, at Zipline (flyzipline.com). We deliver essential medicines and vaccines by drone to the rural poor in Rwanda & Ghana. Some of our projects are funded by great organizations in this space like Gates & GAVI. I also donate ~50% of my income to GiveWell top charities, along with...

    2) Farm animal welfare: Depending on how much you value an animal's life and well-being in relation to a person, the vast suffering of farmed animals is a huge problem that is also quite neglected and tractable. According to Animal Charity Evaluators (the GiveWell of this space), the most effective organizations are those like The Humane League (corporate outreach for improved standards) or The Good Food Institute (promoting and developing meat-alternatives, e.g. Impossible Burgers, or cultured meat).

    3) Improving the long-term future: If you value the lives of future generations, then you might choose to focus on mitigating existential risks, i.e. those that risk extincting humanity. AI risk mitigation, e.g. OpenAI, gets a lot of focus in the bay area for obvious reasons, but there are many other opportunities here, e.g. reducing global pandemic risk, nuclear security, etc.

    Hope this helps, and of course, I'd be happy to provide more links, articles, books, blogs, or podcasts on any of this! Or even better, put you in touch with some of the folks who work at these organizations

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  • memossy 1653 days ago
    We have several projects tackling large global problems launching shortly with interesting backing.

    These include fighting poverty with intelligent smartphones, fighting commodity volatility and fighting online hate and extremism.

    All have a AI + human angle and interesting backing.

    Mail me on semantic at gmail.com if of interest

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    • talking_panda 1653 days ago
      Thanks. Can you share some online resources about the projects?
    • tonixx 1650 days ago
      You shouldn't feed the spam bots with your email :) Use a free contact link instead: https://contact.do
  • mav3rick 1653 days ago
    Cruise Waymo Tesla or any other startup for self driving. Gates Foundation for the rest ?
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  • Iwillgetby 1653 days ago
    Android is FULL of malware. Being able to detect that shouldn't be too hard considering google rarely detects it quickly. (odd strings in APKs, traffic to suspicious ASNs, traffic to low rank domains). There are many reports online about android malware to look at to find patterns to detect future malware. Many reporters around the world are running malicious software on their phones and have no idea.

    Great report to listen to about it here. https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/48/

    Warning. The darknetdiary episodes are ADDICTING. Awesome stuff!

    Posted link to wrong episode. Correct episode about journalists and smart phones.. https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/38/