Senior takes on AI data centers’ soaring energy needs

When Jachin Ramirez started at The University of Texas at Arlington during the COVID-19 pandemic, he never imagined he’d help develop next-generation data-center technology for a major Department of Energy initiative—and join a research team gaining national attention.

Set to graduate Friday at Globe Life Field, Ramirez is at the forefront of a global technological challenge: developing energy-efficient cooling systems for massive AI data centers that are rapidly multiplying and taxing local water and power supplies.

“Looking back now, it still feels surreal,” Ramirez said. “If the stars ever aligned once in my life, this is definitely it.”

During his senior year, Ramirez led an undergraduate team contributing to UTA’s work on the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E COOLERCHIPS program, a major effort to reduce data-center cooling energy to less than 5% of the IT load.

Currently, cooling systems can consume up to 40% of a data center’s total energy, putting increasing strain on water and electricity resources as new facilities are built. UTA’s COOLERCHIPS project, led by Presidential Distinguished Professor Dereje Agonafer, partners with Austin-based Accelcius, which provides the two-phase, direct-to-chip liquid cooling technology that makes such reductions possible.

Under Ramirez’s guidance, his team developed a heat-sink design that could be manufactured using standard methods, building on a high-performance 3D-printed version created earlier for the COOLERCHIPS project. Their goal was to make a design that was easier and cheaper to mass-produce while still boosting cooling performance.

Their work resulted in Ramirez and his team winning the Nasser Grayeli Best Poster Award at the 2025 ASME InterPACK Conference in Anaheim, California, an international gathering of researchers and industry experts in electronics packaging. There, Ramirez saw firsthand how rapidly data center technology is advancing. He valued the chance to collaborate closely with Dr. Agonafer’s team. 

“We had a front-row seat to all this development that was happening in real time,” he said. “It honestly feels like a sort of industrial revolution, a once-in-a-generation kind of event.”

But more importantly, the work gave Agonafer and his COOLERCHIPS project a pathway to a heat-sink design that could be mass-manufactured.

“They were working with the same design constraints we did,” said Braxton Smith, Ramirez’s graduate mentor. “Their prototype showed far improved performance over current commercial offerings, opening a pathway to next-generation, higher-power memory modules.”

Ramirez, who grew up in Arlington and was homeschooled before coming to UTA, said he never imagined working on such an impactful project as an undergraduate.

“Seeing in real time how fast the field is developing—AI, cooling, data centers—it’s something that will only keep growing. Being part of the early work is pretty surreal,” he said.

He credits UTA faculty with guiding him throughout his time at the University.

“They taught me to think critically, persevere through trial and error and step confidently into leadership roles I never imagined,” Ramirez said. “They taught me that every mistake is also a discovery. They helped me realize that I could actually do this.”

As he prepares to begin his master’s degree at UTA and continue working in data-center cooling research, Ramirez sees this moment as the culmination of five years of academic, personal and professional growth.

“This project showed me what I’m capable of,” he said. “UTA gave me the chance to learn, to lead and to be part of something bigger than myself. I’m really grateful for that.”