The German Datacenter Association has made four awards for young academics and entrepreneurs for research relating to data centers.
The Association recognized theses at undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels, at a ceremony held at last week’s German Datacenter Conference in Frankfurt.
These awards, and a fourth one for a startup, were presented by Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus, Minister for Digital Strategy and Development in the Hesse region.
The awards were for €1,500 or €2,500.
The undergraduate award went to Philipp Riegger, for work calculating the benefits of different waste heat reuse scenarios, at the Institute for Energy Economics and Rational Energy Use at the University of Stuttgart.
Ruben Glowczak looked at how artificial intelligence can improve power monitoring measurement and management in data centers in an “excellent” master's thesis earned at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.
Dr. Dirk Turek, who now works for CBRE, won the doctoral thesis award, for a total cost model for the location prediction and selection of data centers, which he produced at the University of Stuttgart. The model takes into account fluctuating factors such as transport connections, staff availability, and ecological aspects as well as constant factors such as IT hardware and electricity costs.
Finally, the startup award went to Julian Hauber, of JH Computers, who operates a climate-neutral data center in the German region of Ostalb.
“Data centers play an outstanding role in the digital infrastructure and form the backbone of digitalization,” said Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus in her speech to the guests. “We need smart, innovative minds who know how to use and develop all of this. We need skilled workers who think about innovation and sustainability from the outset.”
“With the Young Talent Award, we would like to encourage young talents to contribute to the sustainable development of the industry and thus to digital transformation with smart ideas, unique approaches, and visible innovative strength,” said Prof. Dr. Peter Radgen board member of the GDA and initiator of the prize.
Entries are invited for next year’s award. Entries must have been completed in English or German, between August 2023 and July 2024.
