A doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering, Song studies data centers — the nervous systems of our digital lives — and ways to cool them more efficiently.

“I like computers, math and engineering, but it’s not just about technology. It’s more about people,” Song says. “It’s the demand of people who are used to this digital life today that drives the need for the growth of data centers.”

As indispensable as they are, data centers can also be energy hogs. The tens of thousands of data centers across the country used roughly 76 billion kilowatt-hours of energy in 2010, or about 2 percent of the nation’s entire electricity consumption, according to the New York Times. Much of that energy goes into cooling, or thermal management. The processors in a data center emit heat, and overheating can lead to slower processing or even system failure.

Song’s research is part of a growing effort looking at how companies can save money and energy by cooling their data centers more efficiently.

Right now, the standard method used to control energy usage in data centers involves using large-scale computational modeling and costly measurements of the temperatures throughout the data center for specific room configurations. It’s a precise method, but processing all the information and making changes to improve cooling performance can take hours or even days.

Song thinks that’s too long, especially when changes in temperature can mean drastic changes in cost. If a company can maintain healthy operating conditions in its data center, it won’t need to spend as much cooling down overheated processors. If companies can raise the temperature of the cool air they send into data centers by just four degrees Celsius (from 18 to 22 degrees), they use on average 30 percent less energy per minute.

Song is working on a greener solution, which combines smarter scientific modeling, simpler measurement requirements and much, much faster monitoring — so that cooling needs can be diagnosed and adjusted within minutes, rather than days.

The trick, Song thinks, is to develop a smart compact model that can not only provide more effective guidance to heat sensors setup, but can also learn from them via real-time feedback and predict the stuff that cannot be measured.

Because of the wide range of data center configurations and sizes, there is no one-size-fits-all model for thermal management, notes Bruce Murray, professor of mechanical engineering and Song’s advisor.

“Song has shown a lot of initiatives to develop a broad spectrum of compact models,” Murray said. “He’s already published four peer-reviewed journal articles.”

Binghamton University chemist Nikolay Dimitrov imagines all of these things, and because of that they may someday be a reality for the rest of us. Dimitrov uses his expertise in electrochemistry, analytical chemistry and materials science to develop catalysts that he hopes will be sturdier and cheaper than existing options.

Take the lithium ion battery. This workhorse of the tech world powers products ranging from cell phones to electric vehicles. But it has basic limitations: Its capacity decreases so fast that even the best smartphones lose their juice in two days; its energy density pales in comparison to gasoline; and overcharging can lead to instability and, in the worst cases, fires.

One future alternative is the lithium oxygen (air) battery. Dimitrov estimates that, once developed, the lithium oxygen battery will store 10 times the energy of a similar-sized lithium ion.

Dimitrov contributes to that future by developing the fundamental catalysts from which those batteries (and many other things) could someday be built.

A paper he co-authored in Nature in 2001, which first introduced to a broader audience de-alloying, a key process to his approach, has been cited more than 1,000 times. Dimitrov, an associate professor of chemistry and materials science, has brought $1.5 million dollars in research funding to Binghamton since joining the faculty a decade ago. His National Science Foundation support includes a $300,000 award this year and a 2008 CAREER Award. (That’s the most prestigious federal grant for young faculty.)

“The NSF wants to make sure that we can control key fundamental aspects of this process so we can move to practical application in a more confident way,” Dimitrov said.

Most catalysts are now made using nanoparticles. They’re handy and versatile little objects, but controlling them is difficult and results in substantial losses.

Dimitrov’s method, on the other hand, involves electrochemically depositing an alloy of readily mixed metals, such as silver and gold, then selectively removing the less noble one (in that case, silver), to leave a noble, three-dimensional porous structure that’s ultra-thin, uniform and beautifully interconnected. This structure can then be customized with a variety of coatings with specific catalytic activity.

“We control the current, and by running it for a specific time, we get a charge that accounts for every atom deposited on the surface,” Dimitrov said.

Radoslav Adzic, a senior chemist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and leading researcher in fuel cell catalysis, says Dimitrov’s work on fundamental questions in electrochemistry has made significant contributions to their field.

“His recent work developing catalysts for energy applications is the subject of enormous importance for achieving goals of clean energy and a clean environment,” Adzic said. “His methodical approach and ability to identify key issues produces publications that will help in reaching these goals in the near future.”