Explore the Agenda
8:00 am Check-In & Light Breakfast
8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Optimizing Mechanical Infrastructure to Support Next-Gen Tech & Equipment
9:00 am Leveraging Software-Driven Optimization to Enhance Data Center Cooling Performance
- Understand how workload and server placement impacts thermal performance to reduce hotspots and improve cooling efficiency across data center environments
- Incorporate cooling-aware constraints into optimization models to enable smarter distribution of workloads and infrastructure, maximizing performance without increasing cooling demand
- Bridge the gap between software and mechanical systems by using data-driven insights to support more efficient cooling strategies and improve overall data center operations
9:30 am Adapting Infrastructure to Next-Generation Hardware to Manage Thermal Loads & Future-Proof High-Density Data Centers
- Evaluating Vera Rubin chip thermal behaviour to design cooling systems that maintain performance and reliability over multiple years
- Adapting mechanical infrastructure for 800V DC systems to handle emerging processor architectures and high-power AI workloads
- Anticipating chip-driven thermal spikes to plan capacity, redundancy and lifecycle investments before deployment
10:00 am Morning Networking Break
Maximizing Power, Water, & Cooling & Performance for Operational Resilience
11:00 am Audience Discussion: Effectively Controlling Liquid Cooling Systems to Ensure System Reliability & Reduce Rework
- Evolving commissioning practices to address liquid cooling sensitivities including contamination, air management, filtration and system flushing
- Evaluating the role of liquid-cooled load banks in validating performance, ensuring clean commissioning processes and reducing operational risk
- Optimizing control strategies to manage dynamic AI workloads, improve load tracking and maintain system stability
- Aligning commissioning, controls and operations to ensure systems perform as designed, reduce inefficiencies and enable long-term reliability
11:30 am Balancing On-Site & Off-Site Water Use to Optimize PUE & Maximize Available IT Power
- Determining off-site water use for the utility company’s power generation
- Calculating on-site water and energy use for air cooled, adiabatic and hybrid adiabatic systems
- Comparing the three systems for total water and energy use and the additional IT power for the hybrid system energy to overcome grid constraints & enable resilient cooling
12:00 pm Evaluating Cooling Trade-Offs to Balance Water Use, Energy Efficiency, Cost & Resilience
- Navigating the trade-off between PUE and WUE to determine when to prioritize energy efficiency versus water conservation under varying regional and regulatory constraints
- Quantifying lifecycle impacts across cooling strategies (evaporative, air-cooled, hybrid) to compare cost, complexity, energy use and operational performance
- Evaluating real-world constraints, including peak water demand, infrastructure limits and community impact to guide practical, sustainable mechanical design decisions
12:30 pm Networking Lunch Break
Looking Toward Future Data Center Cooling Engineering
1:30 pm Advancing Academic Research & Engineering Collaboration to Solve Next-Generation Data Center Cooling Challenges
- Exploring how university-led research and simulation modeling can support the development of more efficient, scalable and sustainable cooling strategies for highdensity AI workloads
- Equipping the next generation of mechanical engineers with the thermal management, fluid dynamics and systems integration expertise needed to support the future of data center infrastructure
- Bridging the gap between academic research and industry deployment by translating experimental findings, lab testing and pilot programs into practical engineering applications for real-world facilities
2:00 pm Panel: Building Industry Knowledge to Shape Future Standards, Reduce Uncertainty & Enable Scalable Adoption
- Tracking disruptive technologies and future computing demands to ensure today’s designs remain viable in a rapidly evolving landscape
- Building the knowledge, skills and cross-industry alignment needed today to prepare teams for the next decade of data center growth and increasing thermal complexity
- Translating early deployments and real-world performance data into repeatable design practices to accelerate standardization and reduce uncertainty in emerging cooling approaches