IUCRC Phase III Binghamton University: Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2)

Suny At Binghamton, Binghamton NY

Investigators

Abstract

With the proliferation of automation and electronic devices throughout most major industries, the amount of data being produced and the need to process/manage that data continues to grow. Automated management of data centers, addressing their emerging thermal challenges and improving their energy efficiency form the key to addressing this demand. The Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2), an NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC), was established in 2011 to address these needs for data centers. This award provides a Phase III renewal for this 3-site IUCRC, which consists of Binghamton University, Villanova University and University of Texas at Arlington. ES2's vision is to develop systematic methodologies for operating electronic systems, including data centers, as dynamic, self- sensing and regulating systems that are predictable and verified in real time. The focus in Phase I and Phase II has been to develop new energy-optimization and thermal management models and designs, as well as tools and algorithms enabling electronic data systems to operate more efficiently and securely. Phase III will further expand on these methodologies to progress closer to a full realization of the ES2 vision. The Center brings together computer scientists, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers in a synergistic multidisciplinary team to advance industrially relevant research in this area. ES2, in promoting significant reductions in energy consumption in electronic systems, will contribute to the national agenda of eventually reaching net-zero carbon emissions. Reducing energy costs in data centers will help to allow computing services to be more deployable and accessible for a larger population segment. ES2 continues to attract a strong group of students at the undergraduate and graduate levels and provides industrially relevant training in their careers beyond graduation. At the Binghamton site, which serves as the lead site for the Center, ES2’s research activities focus on smart workload prediction to allocate IT, cooling and energy resources dynamically and thus realize holistic energy-management methodologies for data centers at different scales. This holistic management of IT, cooling and energy sourcing is key to realizing sustainable, reliable, and available data centers of the future. The activities on sustainability also include the incorporation of renewable energy sources into data centers. At Binghamton, the research on cooling systems addresses the emerging cooling needs of high-power footprint servers and racks typical of data centers that cater to the HPC and intelligence-on-demand segments by focusing on single and two- phase cooling technologies and model-based development of cooling system control. Advanced air-cooling systems, including direct and indirect evaporative cooling, are also investigated. ES2 continues to work closely with its broad industry base of partners, including data center intensive businesses, data center hosting and service providers, data center design and infrastructure providers and data center equipment suppliers. Researchers at Binghamton University contribute to the center in the areas of thermal analysis and heat transfer, as well as power-aware systems and high-performance computing. Binghamton’s infrastructure includes a dedicated data center research laboratory. This data center laboratory has the scale of a mid-range data center but unlike a production data center, it permits disruptive experiments to be carried out. In addition to two fully contained cold aisles, the laboratory houses various types of cooling facilities (traditional chilled air cooling, rear door heat exchangers using chilled water and warm water cooling) to support experiments involving different cooling technologies that are seen in legacy as well as state-of-the-art data centers. Inherent inefficiencies and sustainability needs within the cooling, IT and power delivery components are addressed through investigations centered on new and emerging technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.