Event Outcomes: Data Centre Knowledge Exchange with IMechE: Addressing engineering challenges in critical environments
On Thursday 11th March, we held a joint webinar with IMechE. The purpose was to provide a structured opportunity for knowledge exchange between IMechE members and those working in critical environments in the data centre sector.
After a welcome from Murat Islam on behalf of the IMechE, Emma Fryer from techUK provided a very brief overview of data centres, how the sector has evolved and some current market characteristics. The majority of the session was taken up with a panel discussion, moderated by Steven Wright of 4D Data Centres, where Billy McHallum, Dave Smith and Mark Acton explained what drew them from other sectors into data centres and discussed the engineering challenges they face in areas like facilities management, power and cooling. The session also explored how innovations in other engineering-rich disciplines and industries could be applied in data centre environments. Murat Islam provided an IMechE perspective and there were plenty of questions to field from the chat, ranging from heat reuse to cooling technology.
It was evident to the IMechE community that continuing sector growth presents multiple career opportunities, especially for engineers. For our data centre operators it was clear that there was enormous scope for sharing knowledge and they were keen to hear more about the potential to apply external expertise to data centre environments, especially in areas like cooling. We plan to hold follow up sessions dedicated to more specific topics so that we can cover them in more detail.
In the meantime..
The session recording is here.
You can find the slides here.
The careers landing page is here.
(this lists employers within the UK data centre sector – click on the logos to visit individual careers pages)
Lucas Banach
Lucas Banach is Programme Assistant at techUK, he works on a range of programmes including Data Centres; Climate, Environment & Sustainability; Market Access and Smart Infrastructure and Systems.
Luisa C. Cardani
Luisa C. Cardani is the Head of the Data Centres Programme at techUK, aiming to provide a collective voice for UK operators and working with government to improve business environment for the data centres sector.