AI-powered cooling startup aims to boost data center efficiency

UNIVERSITY PARK – Data centers power the digital world, storing and processing the vast amounts of information that keep businesses, websites, and online services running. According to Wangda Zuo, Penn State professor in the College of Engineering and associate director for research at the Global Building Network, the operating costs for data centers are rising. He says for data centers, cooling is often the primary expense after IT. Servers generate significant heat, requiring temperature regulation to prevent overheating and malfunctions. 

NexDCCool Technologies, a Penn State research-based startup launched by Zuo’s lab, is developing an AI-powered platform intending to optimize the cooling systems in data centers, helping them maximize IT capacity by reducing cooling demand. 

“AI is booming, which means more computing power is needed, but data centers are facing limited power supply,” said Zuo. “Data center owners must allocate the limited power between cooling and IT. Our goal is to reduce cooling demands so more power can be used for IT, ultimately increasing revenue for those data centers.” 

Over the past decade, Zuo’s lab has developed various open-source software to improve building energy efficiency, including data center cooling.  

Zuo explained that many data centers are operating for maximum cooling needs with constant IT loads. However, he said the cost of power, the amount of cooling needed, and the IT load is always fluctuating. The NexDCCool software aims to automatically manage and adjust the cooling based on the customer’s objective, whether it’s to minimize total costs, minimize total cooling power, or maximize profit. The software would connect to the existing cooling system and IT infrastructure. 

In spring 2024, Zuo and Viswanathan Ganesh, a Ph.D. candidate in the department of architectural engineering, participated in the Invent Penn State NSF I-Corps short course. The program is designed to help researchers start on the path toward commercializing their innovations. 

“The short course was eye-opening,” Zuo said. “We had an idea to commercialize, and they taught us entrepreneurial basics from scratch while pushing us to engage with customers. In academic research, our technology was praised, but in I-Corps, industry professionals said it was too complex and slow. That’s when I realized research-grade tech doesn’t easily transfer to industry—businesses lack the time and expertise to adapt it. That insight was invaluable.” 

The NexDCCool team then moved on to the NSF I-Corps National Teams program in fall 2024. 

“During the regional program, we had a general idea that data centers were our market, but we didn’t know who our end users were or what features they needed,” said Ganesh. “The national program helped us identify our key initial users, which was eye-opening. We also learned the importance of sales language—saying ‘you can save $150,000’ is one thing, but saying ‘you can add two extra IT servers that could generate over $2 million’ was a game-changer.” 

In addition to the I-Corps program, the NexDCCool team utilized resources from the Penn State Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the Penn State Dickinson Law Entrepreneur Assistance Clinic, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central & Northern PA. 

“From a faculty perspective, the I-Corps program and Invent Penn State’s entrepreneurial network as a whole have been invaluable,” Zuo said. “It reinforces that our research should work towards solving real-world problems, highlights industry needs, and helps us focus on what’s truly useful. This program provided a bridge for me to align academic research with industry demands.” 

Ganesh echoed that sentiment from a student perspective. 

“I wasn’t someone who liked talking to people, but I-Corps pushed me to engage, understand potential customer needs, and communicate my ideas effectively,” Ganesh said. “It also changed my perspective—researchers typically work bottom-up, focusing on details first, but I-Corps taught me to start with the big picture. The program has also given me incredible industry exposure, connections with major players, and opportunities to travel and attend major conferences.” 

About NSF I-Corps  

The NSF I-Corps program uses experiential education to help researchers gain valuable insight into entrepreneurship, starting a business or industry requirements and challenges. I-Corps enables the transformation of invention to impact. The curriculum integrates scientific inquiry and industrial discovery in an inclusive, data-driven culture driven by rigor, relevance, and evidence. Through I-Corps training, researchers can reduce the time to translate a promising idea from the laboratory to the marketplace. Penn State University is part of the NSF I-Corps Mid-Atlantic Hub, a network of universities, NSF-funded researchers, established entrepreneurs, local and regional entrepreneurial communities, and other federal agencies. Hubs work collaboratively to build and sustain a diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem throughout the United States.