Galina Kennedy is a PhD student at NexSys based in the Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing & Biomedical Engineering
of Trinity College Dublin. The title of her NexSys Project is 'Sustainable Data Centre Thermal Management using Liquid Cooling Techniques'.
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What is your NexSys research about and what are you working on at the moment?
The overall goal of my project is to improve the efficiency and controllability of cooling of data centres in order to possibly use the waste heat from these data centres as a low-cost heat source for surrounding residences and industries, thus reducing the net impact of these data centres on the environment and significantly improving sustainability.
My research is specifically looking at the improvement of efficiency of liquid cooling of high-powered computer components, with the end goal being to hopefully be able to integrate this into a functioning computational server system such as in data centres. My aim is to improve the efficiency of cooling of these high-powered computational components by introducing pulses into the liquid flow, with the experimental work done so far showing positive results.
What first got you interested in your research area?
Given that there are over 80 data centres in Ireland, with over 70 of these in the Dublin area alone, the question of the purpose of data centres and their negative impact on the environment has been a significant topic of interest in recent years, especially in areas where data centres are located or are planned. Therefore, the prospect of improving the narrative surrounding data centres by improving sustainability and their impact on the surrounding areas was what appealed to me most about this project.
What is the wider relevance of your research to the energy transition?
The wider scope of my project is to improve the efficiency and controllability of cooling within data centres to hopefully integrate data centres into their surrounding areas as a low-cost heating source. This will hopefully improve the public view of data centres by reducing their net negative impact on the environment, particularly their significant electricity usage.
What is something people may find surprising about you?
I play piano and sing classically to a high level. I have been training in both since I was very small. Being a PhD student, in particular in engineering, can be very demanding and intense, with long hours and a lot of setbacks, so I love that after a long stressful day of research or testing, I have my classical music to escape to.