Startup focuses on reliable, efficient cooling for computer servers

In a dark, windy room on the top floor of Engineering Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, racks of computers are processing information for a college that relies, like all technical fields, on massive computing power. The noise comes from multiple fans located inside each computer case and from the large air conditioner that drives currents through the room to remove waste heat from the processors. Equipment and electricity for cooling are a major expense at big computer installations, and Timothy Shedd , an associate professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Madison, uses the room to show a system he has invented that can do the job more efficiently. Timothy Shedd examines a computer equipped with his novel cooling system. Tubes circulate refrigerating fluid through a special heat exchanger (under the X-shaped structure) on the processor that is the biggest heat source in a computer. Photo: David Tenenbaum In Shedd's system, a pair of translucent plastic tubes enter each computer case. Upon close inspection, a stream of tiny bubbles in the fluid can be seen exiting the case.