At Visitation, student led engineering projects and drew on ‘Salesian Little Virtues’
Proposals to build data centers across the country have sparked community opposition because of the large amount of energy and water they require, possibly leading to higher utility costs for those consumers, and the noise that they generate.
This school year, Ana Pin led her fellow members of the BEDA (Building, Engineering, Design and Architecture) Club at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington in designing a possible net-zero data center in the Dallas area. With the help of professional mentors, the young women won first place in an ACE (Architecture, Construction and Engineering) regional design competition.
“Our project aimed to completely offset any carbon emission produced during the data center’s operation,” said Pin, a member of the class of 2026 at Georgetown Visitation.
The students’ design utilized a new technology, liquid immersion cooling, which she said produces minimal noise and vibration, and the design called for using a solar farm located next to the center to power the project.
The Visitation students working as a team on the project divided up into smaller groups to consider factors including the site selection, type of construction and sustainability (environmentally conscious building practices), interior design and exterior layout, and cost analysis.