Looking for a way to change the ICT world? Join Inveneo’s newest competition: to design an ultra-efficient small-scale data center! Inveneo, in partnership with ARM Limited, is launching a solar powered Micro-Data Center Design Challenge, starting today.
Inveneo is looking for engineers, researchers, and students to submit innovative designs. The top prize for the competition is $10,000 and the winning design will be built and deployed in the developing world.
Given the harsh environments present in much of the developing world, designers will need to create a functional micro-data center that can be powered with a solar photovoltaic system, withstand intense heat and humidity, and run completely without access to standard air conditioning.
Candidates will use ARM based solutions to create the “micro-board chassis” design that will use off-the-shelf ARM based processor micro boards (i.e. Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi/Pro, ODROID, etc.). Inveneo has partnered with LeMaker, which is offering a discounted 15 Banana Pro kit that can be used to build a prototype micro-board chassis.
“We envision a new type of blade server enclosure design. The design will use 15 of these new generation microcomputer boards and will be very low energy usage, DC powered, and passively cooled,” says Bruce Baikie, Executive Director of Inveneo. “Just as BackBlaze changed the low end storage market with their open source design, we are planning to revolutionize the low end blade server market with this challenge.”
The contest is open to applicants who are at least 18 years of age, in teams that range from three to seven members. The contest’s panel of judges includes industry experts from Inveneo, ARM, and LeMaker, among others. The top two winning designs will be announced on July 15, 2015. Please note that the winning designs will be considered open source for anyone to use in the future.
If you are interested in entering this design challenge or to find more information, please visit Inveneo’s website or start the application here.
Have questions? Please email Inveneo for more information. Best of luck!
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