What does it take to manage a robust data center? And how can engineers get the experience needed to oversee both the facilities—the power, cooling and electrical components—and the computing aspects, such as hardware and performance?
For six years, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has partnered with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), to offer a cutting-edge course in data center design to address these questions. Part of UT’s datacenter technology and management minor, the interdisciplinary course features instructors from both UT and ORNL who teach students how to navigate the facilities and the computational resources in large-scale data centers. The course aims to give students a close-up look at some of the most complex data centers in the nation—those located in the heart of East Tennessee at ORNL—and the opportunity design their own data centers using CAD software for drawing 2D and 3D blueprints.
Rachel McDowell/Special to The Oak Ridger