Ania Udofia, a 15-year-old student from Calgary, competed in this year’s 8 Billion International Student Video Competition.
Annie was one of 5,000 students who entered the competition, but her project, which looked at how to cool AI data centers, made her stand out from the crowd. As part of her research, the teen realized that common evaporation techniques for cooling facilities could be improved.
“I realized that water was being wasted due to the particular strategy they were using, called evaporative cooling, and I learned that there were other ways that this could be alleviated through immersion cooling, so I researched that further,” says Annie.
Annie added that she was shocked to learn that some data centers use 5 million gallons of water per day to cool servers. Her solution is to move to immersion technology, which immerses servers in non-conductive liquid and eliminates water waste.
“I was already looking for ways to use AI, but I also wanted to explore its downside and how it could impact the environment and the energy sector,” says Annie.
Annie researched, shot, and edited the one-minute video project herself. Her cooling theory video won an honorable mention in the competition and a $300 cash prize.
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Richard Chao, an AI expert from the University of Calgary’s School of Computer Science, reflected on what cooldown methods are currently being used in data centers.
“We have recycling water centers where we basically pump water, then cool the data center and try to reuse the water so it can be used again,” he says. “Another way to cool a data center is to use running water.”
Zhao also said that different sizes of data centers require different cooling technologies.
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