IIT Bombay, Vertiv collaborate to improve cooling strategies for AI-driven data centres

Mumbai: Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Bombay, on Wednesday said it has joined hands with digital infrastructure solutions provider Vertiv to develop advanced cooling solutions for AI-driven data centres. With 54 per cent of Indian businesses already adopting AI in some form and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) power consumption rising sharply from 700W in 2022 to an expected 1,200W in 2025, the pressure on data-centre cooling systems has increased.

This partnership aims to build solutions that address these fast-evolving thermal demands while creating a pipeline of industry-ready engineering talent, according to a statement. "Our collaboration with Vertiv enables us to take research from labs to solutions with direct industrial relevance.

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As AI and high-performance computing systems evolve, there is a pressing need for approaches that are both technically robust and future-ready.... When industry brings real-world experience, and academia brings fearless curiosity, the result is always greater than the sum of its parts," Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) director Shireesh Kedare said.

The project will begin with Vertiv designing a dry cooler for a 40 kW liquid cooling load. The RCD module will be integrated and tested at IIT Bombay's Heat Pump Laboratory, followed by full-scale evaluation at Vertiv's Pune facility.

"By combining IIT Bombay's scientific insights with Vertiv's global engineering expertise and our real-time learnings from thousands of operating data centres, this collaboration will help prepare the next generation to be better equipped with industry-relevant knowledge," AS Prasad, Vice President - Product Management and Engineering, Vertiv, said.