Day One

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Evaluating layout, piping and spatial planning to ensure efficient integration of mechanical equipment (such as CDUs, piping and CRAHs), without sacrificing white space
• Incorporating innovative mechanical equipment designs such as compact chillers or advanced coil technologies to maintain capacity while reducing physical footprint and improving efficiency
• Optimizing mechanical equipment placement to maintain airflow efficiency and accessibility for maintenance and operational reliability

Evaluating layout, piping and spatial planning to ensure efficient integration of mechanical equipment (such as CDUs, piping and CRAHs), without sacrificing white space

Incorporating innovative mechanical equipment designs such as compact chillers or advanced coil technologies to maintain capacity while reducing physical footprint and improving efficiency

Optimizing mechanical equipment placement to maintain airflow efficiency and accessibility for maintenance and operational reliability

• 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

• 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