Tuesday, October 10
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Panel: The Elephant in the Room:
An Industry/University Perspective on the Current and Future Challenges in Data Center and Sustainability

Data center sustainability comprises a multitude of factors – from the energy needed to run it, to the life-cycle of the equipment within it, as well as the materials needed to make up the components of that equipment – just to name a few. With the increase in number and size of data centers, and the focus on environmental and climate impact of data centers, it has become increasingly important that businesses run their data centers as sustainably as possible. The Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2) is an NSF-sponsored Industry University Cooperative Research Center focused on making data centers more energy-efficient. ES2 is now expanding its focus to look at broader sustainability issues in data centers, which now include mobile and edge platforms. This panel is a combination of academics and industry members who will discuss end-to-end sustainability as it pertains to data centers, along with the progress ES2 has made in addressing sustainability, as well as the current and future challenges that remain. Topics include sustainability metrics, grid power generation vs. direct data center emissions, cooling technologies, sustainable fluids, waste heat reuse, and water scarcity metrics, among others.

Moderator:
Gregory Ratcliff (bio)
Global Mission Critical Lead
Chief Innovation Officer
Vertiv

Panelists: :

Arad Azizi (bio)
Senior Advanced R&D Engineer/Scientist
Honeywell

Alfonso Ortega (bio)
James R. Birle Professor of Engineering Technology and ES2 Site Director, Villanova University

Bahgat Sammakia (bio)
Vice President for Research and ES2 Center Director
Binghamton University, State University of New York

Mark Seymour (bio)
Distinguished Engineer
Cadence Design Systems