Hamza Salih Erden

On December 5th, 2023, members and alumni of the “Thermal Systems in Cloud Infrastructure” research group attended Data Center Istanbul, a sectoral conference, where Dr. Hamza Salih Erden gave an invited speech titled “Research Activities on the Data Center Thermal and Energy Challenges”. He presented highlights of past and ongoing research conducted in his research group at the Informatics Institute and future research directions. He shared ongoing efforts to create an energy management system for optimizing data centers as assets for owners and energy grids.

The group members enjoyed the hospitality of the organization committee, speeches by the stakeholders of the industry, networking opportunities with the participating company representatives and guests.

Video recording of the session can be accessed below (in Turkish).

Our research group members attended International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and Technologies (SEST 2023) between September 4-6 in Muğla at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University. Beltus Nkwawir presented the preliminary results of the TÜBİTAK project in the session “Demand Side Management” chaired by Dr. Hamza Salih Erden. The conference paper Beltus presented is titled “Data Center Energy Optimization under Different Dynamic Pricing Schemes”. The study explores the cost-saving potential of data centers utilizing energy optimization under a demand response program with various existing electricity tariffs in Turkey and others that are not available. You can access the paper by following the link.

ASHRAE Annual Conference 2023 took place between June 24-28 in Tampa, FL, USA. Dr. Erden attended the conference and presented the conference paper titled “Investigations on the Cost-Effective Design and Operation of Water-Based Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Data Centers” co-authored by Amir Abdolhosseinzadeh, Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate at Boğaziçi University. Funded by the TÜBİTAK project, the study explores the cost-saving potential of thermal energy storage systems (i.e., water tanks), which are primarily designed as emergency cooling systems in data centers. While investigating the dynamic behavior of the data center cooling infrastructure and controls based on thermodynamic models, the work proposes an optimization framework to minimize the total cost of ownership of the system while ensuring a feasible design and operation. As a corresponding member of the Technical Committee 9.9: Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment, Dr. Erden attended in-person meetings of the Technical Committee aside from the wide variety of technical sessions.

STAR Internship positions are available as part of our TÜBİTAK 3501 Career Project titled “Modeling and Optimization of Grid-Integrated Energy Systems for the Demand-Side Management of Data Centers” (VERİ MERKEZLERİNİN TALEP TARAFI YÖNETİMİ IÇİN ŞEBEKEYLE ENTEGRE ENERJİ SİSTEMLERİNİN MODELLEME VE OPTİMİZASYONU).

This is an open call for Mechanical and Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Students interested in getting involved with state-of-the-art research in our group and modeling thermal systems in the data center infrastructure. You can submit your applications through the STAR Internship Program website until the deadline on April 22nd, 2022. If you would like to know more about the project and our group, please feel free to contact us.

National and international journal articles have been published recently in our group on the energy and economic assessments of computer room air handling (CRAH) bypass (BP) method for data centers.

The first article, titled “Comprehensive energy and economic assessment of CRAH bypass method in air-cooled data centers” is published in the Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments. The article provides a holistic optimization tool for various configurations of air-cooled data centers based on detailed thermodynamic modeling using hour-by-hour annual energy simulations. Despite the significant energy-saving potential of the CRAH BP method, economics plays a pivotal role in the feasibility of such an investment. The results include design considerations for the successful application of the CRAH BP method in air-cooled data centers.

The second article, titled “Energy and economic analysis of the bypass method for the computer room air conditioning units of a small data center“, published in the Journal of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Gazi University is a national article published in Turkish. The article elaborates on the energy and economic analysis of the method for a small data center on campus, the National High-Performance Computing Center, exploring the feasibility of the application for the first time in an operational data center.

Both articles are funded by the financial support provided by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) as part of the project 118M238, titled “CFD Analysis and Economic Assessment of CRAH Bypass Method for the Cooling Optimization of Data Centers”.

Full citation records of the articles:

Erden, H. S., (2022). “Comprehensive energy and economic assessment of CRAH bypass method in air-cooled data centers”. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, Vol. 52B, 102120.
doi: 10.1016/j.seta.2022.102120

Erden, H. S. & Türkmen, İ., (2022). “Küçük bir veri merkezinin iklimlendirme ünitelerine yönelik baypas yönteminin enerji ve ekonomik analizi”. Gazi Üniversitesi Mühendislik Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi , 37 (4) , 1883-1898.
doi: 10.17341/gazimmfd.897270

Our group member, Beltus, successfully defended his thesis titled “CNN-based Server State Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis using Infrared Thermography” and graduated from the Computer Science M.Sc. Program. His work was co-supervised by Professors Hamza Salih Erden and Behçet Uğur Töreyin and funded by Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Vodafone Future Lab under Project Number 2018000463.

Constructive feedbacks by the committee members Professors Sefer Baday, Gökhan Bilgin and Nurullah Çalık are higly appreciated.

Congrats to Beltus for achieving another milestone in his career and wish him success in the future…

Our project titled “Modeling and Optimization of Grid-Integrated Energy Systems for the Demand-Side Management of Data Centers” has been funded by TUBITAK 3501 Career Development Grant Program. The project team consists of researchers from the Informatics Institute and Energy Institute, and multiple graduate scholarships are available for the duration of the TUBITAK 3501 project until June 2023. Contact for more information: erdenh@itu.edu.tr

Data Center Ankara conference took place on March 30th, 2021 in an online format. Dr. Hamza Salih Erden shared his experiences in CFD modeling research activities for energy savings in data centers.

The video recording of the presentation is available below.

The project titled “An Ensemble Deep Learning System for the Automatic Detection of Covid-19 in X-Ray Images” by our research group member Beltus Nkwawir Wiysobunri, who is pursuing his master’s degree in the Computer Sciences Department, was chosen the best project in the Science category of 2020 International Student Academy Awards Competition.

The project is titled “An Ensemble Deep Learning System for the Automatic Detection of Covid-19 in X-Ray Images” and conducted by Beltus under the supervision of Dr. Hamza Salih Erden and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Behçet Uğur Töreyin.

More information about the project

Congrats Beltus!

The article titled “A home energy management system with an integrated smart thermostat for demand response in smart grids” we coauthored with colleagues from the Istanbul Technical University Energy Institute, Anıl Can Duman, Ömer Gönül and Önder Güler, is now available online in the journal of Sustainable Cities and Society. It has been a fruitful example of interdisciplinary research hopefully to be continued.

Link to the article