Powering Discovery, Education, and Innovation at UC San Diego
The UC San Diego Computer Science & Engineering Department has transformed its legacy server room into a state‑of‑the‑art 2,900 sq ft data center—a modern research and instructional computing hub built to support the next generation of breakthroughs in computing.
This facility is more than an infrastructure upgrade. It is the foundation that enables our faculty, researchers, and students to explore bold ideas, build new technologies, and push the boundaries of what computing can achieve.
A High‑Capacity, High‑Density Facility Built for Modern Research
Designed from the ground up, the new CSE Data Center delivers the power, cooling, and connectivity required for today’s most demanding computational workloads:
- 1.3 megawatts of total power capacity
- 50.0 kW per High Density Rack
- 17.2 kW per‑ Low Density Rack
- Campus‑provided power feeds (no UPS or generator), enabling efficient, cost‑effective operation.
- 100G network uplinks, with a clear path to 400G as research needs grow
This facility is engineered for scale, flexibility, and long‑term growth.
Advanced Cooling for High‑Performance Computing
To support the next generation of dense, high‑power‑demand systems, the data center features a modern, high‑efficiency cooling ecosystem:
- Dedicated climate control, fully independent from building HVAC
- nVent in‑row cooling units for targeted heat removal
- Rear‑door heat exchangers to capture heat at the rack
- A Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) tied into campus chilled water, enabling liquid‑assisted cooling.
- Intelligent airflow management with hot and cold aisles to support diverse rack configurations.
Any system that draws significant power, generates substantial heat, noise, or requires specialized environmental conditions belongs here.
A “Dark” Facility Designed for Reliability and Efficiency
The CSE Data Center operates as a dark facility - no 24/7 on‑site staffing - supported by:
- Comprehensive environmental monitoring
- Remote management and alerting systems
- Secure, managed ID‑card access
- Local co‑location services
This model allows CSE to maximize research capacity while maintaining a lean operational footprint.
A Local Co‑Location Resource for the Community
Located directly within the CSE building, the data center provides:
- Rack‑unit or full‑rack co‑location
- Power and network feeds to each rack
- Rapid physical access for faculty and research teams
- A home for departmental systems and faculty‑owned clusters
This proximity enables rapid experimentation, hands‑on hardware development, and workflows that benefit from being close to the people who build and use the systems.
What Sets the CSE Data Center Apart — Where Student Success Meets Real Infrastructure
One of the most powerful aspects of this facility is its ability to transform the student experience.
Students in CSE now have access to:
- Real, production‑grade infrastructure to support capstone projects
- Research clusters that they can physically interact with
- High‑density cooling, power distribution, and data center operations
- Hands‑on experience that prepares them for careers in computing, systems engineering, AI infrastructure, and more
This data center becomes a living classroom - one where students learn not just theory, but the real‑world systems that power modern computing. Students don’t just observe infrastructure here - they operate it, gaining experience that most universities simply cannot offer.
Fueling Research That Impacts the World
The CSE Data Center supports research across the department, including:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Robotics and autonomous systems
- Cybersecurity and privacy
- Systems and networking
- Computational biology and health
- Data science and large‑scale analytics
- Experimental hardware and architecture research
From AI models that help doctors diagnose disease to robotics systems that navigate complex environments to foundational research that redefines what computers can do, the work powered by this facility reaches far beyond campus.
Questions?
Please contact CSEhelp at csehelp@ucsd.edu