What are the unique challenges of operating mission-critical facilities, and how can reinforcement learning be applied to optimize data center operations? In this episode, I sit down with Vedavyas Panneershelvam, CTO and co-founder of Phaidra, to discuss how their cutting-edge AI technology is transforming the efficiency and reliability of data centers. Phaidra is an AI company that specializes in providing intelligent control systems for industrial facilities to optimize performance and efficiency. Vedavyas is a technology entrepreneur with a strong background in artificial intelligence and its applications in industrial and operational settings. In our conversation, we discuss how Phaidra’s closed-loop, self-learning autonomous control system optimizes cooling for data centers and why reinforcement learning is the key to creating intelligent systems that learn and adapt over time. Vedavyas also explains the intricacies of working with operational data, the importance of understanding the physics behind machine learning models, and the long-term impact of Phaidra’s technology on energy efficiency and sustainability. Join us as we explore how AI can solve complex problems in industry and learn how Phaidra is paving the way for the future of autonomous control with Vedavyas Panneershelvam.

Key Points:

• Hear how collaborating on data center optimization at Google led to the founding of Phaidra.
• How Phaidra’s AI-based autonomous control system optimizes data centers in real-time.
• Discover how reinforcement learning is leveraged to improve data center operations.
• Explore the range of data needed to continuously optimize the performance of data centers.
• The challenges of using real-world data and the advantages of redundant data sources.
• He explains how Phaidra ensures its models remain accurate even as conditions change.
• Uncover Phaidra’s approach to validation and incorporating scalability across facilities.
• Vedavyas shares why he thinks this type of technology is valuable and needed.
• Recommendations for leaders of AI-powered startups and the future impact of Phaidra.

Quotes:

“Phaidra is like a closed-loop self-learning autonomous control system that learns from its own experience.” — Vedavyas Panneershelvam

“Data centers basically generate so much heat, and they need to be cooled, and that takes a lot of energy, and also, the constraints in that use case are very, very narrow and tight.” — Vedavyas Panneershelvam

“The trick [to validation] is finding the right balance between relying on the physics and then how much do you trust the data.” — Vedavyas Panneershelvam

“[Large Language Models] have done a favor for us in helping the common public understand the potential of these, of machine learning in general.” — Vedavyas Panneershelvam

Links:

Vedavyas Panneershelvam on LinkedIn

Phaidra

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