Students across four ASHRAE UK student branch universities won first prize, jointly with the SubZero Team from Universidad Politecnica Madrid (Spain), in The European ASHRAE 2025 student competition focusing on Net Zero Data Centres.
The students from Loughborough University, University of Oxford, London South Bank University, and University of Exeter were tasked with the design of a new data centre that meets ASHRAE Standard 189.1, with a specific focus on achieving net-zero operation. The multi-disciplinary team synergised mechanical, electrical, and architectural innovations to create a design capable of meeting the design objectives. By leveraging effective site sustainability, passive design measures, and free cooling strategies, students were able to significantly reduce demand at the initial stage. As part of the requirement, students also incorporated advanced cooling approaches (including air, water, and immersion cooling) and onsite generation to ensure highly energy-efficient operation and resilient performance.
The proposal, titled ‘RISE-UP’, aimed to address a key challenge facing the digital world today: how to meet the exponentially growing demand for cloud computing without increasing demand for natural resources and carbon emissions. The proposal adopted a framework of:
- Strategic location.
- Novel demand-reduction strategies.
- Smart control for optimised operation.
- Super-efficient cooling system operation.
- maximised on-site renewable energy consumption.
Following this framework, students successfully achieved a Power-Usage Effectiveness of 1.10 under standard operating conditions, therefore going beyond current good practice.
Figure: A Graphical Abstract of the Rise-UP proposal integrating all strategies.
Highlighting the cross-university collaboration, Faisal Shittu a Doctoral Researcher at Loughborough University mentions that “Entering and winning this competition has been a rewarding journey that has showcased the power of teamwork and creativity. It has been an honour leading a team of seasoned minds from various universities in the UK to victory”.
Shanza Neda Hussain, a Doctoral Researcher from the University of Exeter commenting on the experience says “Designing data centres has been an exceptional and transformative experience. It gave me the opportunity to dive deep into several aspects of process and realised that it is more than just cooling servers, it is an art of integrating technologies to balance the environment with innovation. It was a quest to create a design that balances between performance and reliability, with goal of minimising carbon footprint for sustainable development. Most importantly, my experience taught me that collaboration across disciplines, where diverse expertise comes together to create efficient, resilient, and future-ready facilities”
Gayatri Sundar Rajan a doctoral researcher at The University of Oxford, highlighting the impact and relevance of the work mentions that “At present, strategies and infrastructure for effective and sustainable heating, cooling, and ventilation are keys to unlocking global carbon emissions reduction and enhancing our built environment. I am grateful for this opportunity to dive into the world of data centre energy infrastructure where cooling design, waste heat recovery, infrastructure security, and the expansion of cloud computing all meld together. Whether the projected growth of cloud computing or data centre infrastructure is at the rate we expect or not, we can say that these “resistors that print money” * are grabbing global attention. To be able to dive into these systems, learn, and put together our fresh perspective, was a wonderful experience. Through our team’s call to “RISE-UP”, we sought to bring a fresh perspective to the landscape of data centre energy management and HVAC design. We titled our proposal “RISE-UP” because that’s the spirit we’d like to galvanize across the sector. If you are reading this and are excited to think differently about what your energy infrastructure can be or do, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We’d love to keep the conversation going regarding data centre and other industrial energy systems.
We need support across sectors and disciplines to really build a comprehensive view of and future for energy systems globally. This is just the start!
*Credits to Dr. Alexander Harrison for this phrasing”
The Winning Team members
- Faisal Shittu, Kam Wai ‘Minus’ Wong, Patrick Alexander Sumadi, and Samuel Oyesola (Loughborough University).
- Cuicheng Zhang, Nethmi Jayaratne Kariyawasam, and Gayatri Sundar Rajan (University of Oxford).
- Ben Bowden (London South Bank University).
- Shanza Neda Hussain, Syed Muhammad Faiq Ali, and Asim Zaib (University of Exeter)
The winning team were supervised and supported by the following academics: Prof Mahroo Eftekhari (Loughborough University), Prof. Jesus Lizana, Dr Amr Suliman, and Dr Scot Wheeler (University of Oxford), Dr Christina Francis (London South Bank University), and Dr Aritra Ghosh (University of Exeter).
The UK team RISE-UP jointly secured the First Prize for their proposal RISE-UP, alongside the SubZero UPM team from the Technical University of Madrid (Spain).
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