Editor’s note: Higher Ed Footnotes is a weekly roundup of news about higher education and developments at colleges and universities in Tarrant County. It is published on Tuesdays.
A University of Texas at Arlington mechanical and aerospace engineering professor will lead a national effort to develop new cooling technologies for the high energy demands of data centers.
The U.S. Department of Energy selected Dereje Agonafer, a presidential distinguished professor in UTA’s College of Engineering, to spearhead an effort to massively reduce the cooling energy needed for data centers.
Data centers could consume up to 9% of the nation’s total electricity by 2030, according to Electric Power Research Institute data cited in a UTA press release.
UTA graduate students Sai Pundla and Braxton Smith will also work on the thermal management project.
“Being part of this project has been an incredible opportunity to apply what I’ve learned in the lab to a real-world challenge with global implications,” Smith said.
Agonafer secured a partnership with Austin-based Accelsius, a liquid cooling technology company. Accelsius will support the project by providing a proprietary coolant unit along with integration support.
UTA will also be collaborating with the University of Maryland, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
TCU medical school welcomes seventh medical class
Sixty medical students at Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University began their medical training in July with exposure to latest technologies and TCU’s signature approach to medical training.
“This group of medical students are beginning their journey into medicine where their unique skill set of medical knowledge, empathy and technological training will be needed more than ever for future patients and communities,” said Dr. Stuart Flynn, founding dean of the Burnett School of Medicine.
From July 7 to July 18, the first-year medical students attend sessions on virtual reality and artificial intelligence health tools, learn about TCU’s Empathetic Scholar approach to medicine and receive their white coats, a symbol of the beginning of their medical journey that will ultimately lead to the long white coats they will wear as physicians.
The class has 60 students — including 10 TCU graduates and 11 Texans — who were selected from a pool of over 6,000 applicants.
Health Science Center aids in identifying flood victims
The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth is aiding in the identification of those killed in the catastrophic floods in Central Texas.
Texas Rangers are collecting DNA from family members and deceased victims. Those samples are flown to the University of North Texas in Dallas, said Freeman Martin with the Texas Department of Public Safety in an interview with WFAA.
Ultimately, the UNT Health Science Center will assist in testing those samples at its Center for Human Identification.
The center conducts forensic examinations for criminal cases and missing person identification and manages the Texas Missing Persons DNA Database, according to the center’s website. The center is accredited by numerous laboratory agencies and certain FBI standards.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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