Can Hankendi
Abstract Title
Enabling Sustainable and Grid-Aware AI Data Centers
The rapid growth of AI is transforming data center energy demand, pushing global electricity consumption upward and intensifying concerns about carbon emissions. Achieving sustainability across the data center lifecycle requires better visibility into embodied impacts, operational practices, and interactions with the electricity grid.
This talk provides an overview of methods and tools we developed to support more sustainable, grid-interactive data center operations. These include tools for rapid carbon footprint estimation for data centers, approaches for carbon- and grid-aware workload migration across geographic regions, and simulation frameworks for evaluating participation in demand-response programs. Together, these methods illustrate how operational decisions, grid conditions, and infrastructure characteristics collectively shape a facility’s environmental footprint.
The discussion highlights a broader vision for data centers that integrate carbon awareness, real-time grid dynamics, and workload flexibility paving the way toward more efficient, and environmentally responsible AI infrastructure and more resilient grid operations.
Biography
Dr. Can Hankendi is a post-doctoral researcher at Boston University, specializing in sustainable and carbon-aware computing, as well as energy-efficient management of compute platforms. His research focuses on optimizing data center operations for energy and carbon efficiency and exploring data center participation in demand response programs.
Prior to joining Boston University as a post-doctoral researcher in 2024, Dr. Hankendi held several roles in the industry from 2013 to 2021. He served as a Power Management Architect at AMD, Power/Thermal Architect at Samsung Austin Research Center and Post-silicon Power/Thermal Optimization Engineer at Qualcomm. He was also the founder of a startup company, where he built SaaS solutions for financial institutions and retail investors. He successfully exited his startup in 2023.
Dr. Hankendi holds a Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University (2015) and a M.Sc. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from University of Southern California (2010).
Contact
hankendi@bu.edu