Explore the Agenda
7:00 am Registration, Networking & Coffee
8:00 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Maximizing Cooling Efficiency
8:10 am Adopting Cooling Innovations that Enhance Efficiency & Resilience to Drive Down Total Cost of Ownership
- Designing low-overhead mechanical systems to drive down cooling related PUE through optimized pump curves, staging chillers and right-sizing fans
- Balancing efficiency, redundancy and lifecycle costs to ensure that operational improvements do not compromise reliability or introduce mechanical stress
- Effectively planning for redundancy to cut power consumption and future-proof against density growth and reliability risks
8:50 am Balancing Water Use & Energy Efficiency in Next-Gen Data Centers for a Sustainable, Future-Ready Industry
- Navigating geographic and climatic constraints in cooling design to balance water availability with energy demands of the grid
- Collaborating with municipalities and water utilities to unlock sustainable sources (e.g., non-potable water, district cooling or wastewater reuse)
- Incorporating WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) alongside PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) into mechanical design KPIs to drive informed trade-offs and optimize total resource efficiency
9:30 am Morning Refreshments & Speed Networking
Optimizing Thermal Controls for Improved Airflow
10:30 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
11:10 am Case Study: Optimizing Airflow & Ventilation to Prevent Hotspots, Improve Heat Transfer & Ensure Air Quality
- Implementing effective ventilation strategies across CRACs (Computer Room Air Conditioners), CRAHs (Computer Room Air Handlers) and other air handling systems to improve air quality
- Optimizing airflow management with advanced fan technologies and VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) controls to improve heat transfer and reduce energy consumption
- Applying filtration and airflow control to minimize pressure drops and prevent hotspots
11:50 am Design Day & Failing External CFDs: Minimizing overbuild and maximizing infrastructure utilization.
- Examining assumptions in the design day engineering approach.
- Exploring peak shaving to reduce CAPEX and improve utilization of power and cooling infrastructure.
12:00 pm Networking Lunch Break
Aligning Electrical & Mechanical Systems for Reliability
1:00 pm Aligning Electrical & Cooling Systems to Enhance Reliability & Operational Efficiency
- Coordinating electrical and mechanical systems to handle rapid and fluctuating load profiles from AI and high-density workloads to respond efficiently without stressing infrastructure
- Addressing the thermal loads of integrating electrical equipment such as PDUs (Power Distribution Units) and transformers to ensure reliability of both systems
- Utilizing waste heat from on-site energy generation and electrical infrastructure to support mechanical cooling solutions through integrated design approaches
1:40 pm Bridging Electrical & Mechanical Strategies to Control Rapid AI Load Swings in Modern Data Centers
- Co-designing generator, UPS and cooling system responses to rapid AI-driven load changes so electrical and mechanical systems operate in sync rather than in silos
- Creating unified control sequences that coordinate chiller ramp-up times, airflow adjustments and power availability to prevent instability during large step-load events
- Aligning redundancy, load-sharing and operational logic across disciplines so both electrical and mechanical infrastructure can flex dynamically without tripping, overheating or wasting capacity
2:20 pm Accelerating Liquid Cooling Adoption: CDU Efficiency, Faster Deployments, and Smarter Site Prep
- Outlining CDU advantages over traditional air cooling by comparing cooling system efficiency and heat load roadmaps.
- Accelerating deployment timelines by leveraging real use cases that balance pod sizing, maximum CDU performance, and appropriate cooling system physical size.
- Overcoming site preparation and commissioning challenges with solid preparation for streamlined liquid cooling system deployment.
2:50 pm Afternoon Refreshments & Networking
Navigating Compliance & Bridging Design-to-Ops Collaboration
3:30 pm Panel: Strengthening Stakeholder Communication to Bridge Gaps Between Design Intent & Operational Reality
- Facilitating dialogue between rack manufacturers, infrastructure engineers and operations teams to ensure mechanical designs align with server/rack requirements
- Examining the lack of full-system integration ownership across vendors, designers and contractors, and how to prevent fragmented integrations and misalignment between components
- Highlighting breakdowns at commissioning handoff to identify where design plans often crash with operational realities to prevent issues early
- Building industry-wide collaboration frameworks to support rapid growth, knowledge transfer and alignment on evolving workload and cooling demands
4:10 pm Case Study: Applying CFD to Guide Cooling Strategy & Infrastructure Optimization
- Using CFD models to analyze airflow and heat distribution across existing layouts to identify thermal risks and validate cooling performance before physical changes
- Comparing air and liquid cooling scenarios through simulation to support transition planning, evaluate integration impacts, and inform decision-making on capacity, cost, and retrofit complexity
- Leveraging CFD insights to refine equipment placement, containment strategies, and piping/manifold layouts to improve efficiency, maintainability, and operational reliability