Viktor Zenkov is a graduate researcher and PhD candidate in computer science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on track to graduate in May 2025. Viktor’s undergraduate and master’s degrees are in computer science, also from UTK. His research at UTK and internships at ORNL have been interdisciplinary, involving machine learning, microbiology, chemistry, and malware problems approached from “outside the box”, yielding several published papers and conference presentations. He has been a long-term “customer” of supercomputers, running around 250,000 hours of simulations on ISAAC at UTK. In 2024, Viktor joined Effusio as a cofounder and chief operating officer (COO), expanding his experiences to thermodynamics and refrigeration, developing design codes, and more. Through Innovation Crossroads, he will work full-time at Effusio and collaborate with ORNL staff to assess Effusio’s solutions against real-world requirements. Viktor’s versatility and conscientiousness, alongside the Effusio team’s experience and passion for innovation, will yield successes.
Represented Organization
Effusio
Key Innovation
Effusio has developed IOCOOL, a patent-pending two-phase liquid cooling system that combines vapor compression and absorption refrigeration in a novel thermodynamic architecture. This innovative approach offers highly efficient cooling with a small footprint and no water requirement. IOCOOL improves the Coefficient of Performance compared to traditional air- or water-cooled systems and is adaptable to existing designs, allowing for easy retrofitting where cold plates can be upgraded. Initially adapted from defense system thermal management technology, IOCOOL enables substantial energy savings and supports alternative energy initiatives. Computational models, validated by third parties, predict energy consumption reductions of 40-70%, demonstrating both performance and environmental benefits.
Target Market
The technology is initially targeted at data centers, which face increasing energy demands from cloud computing, AI, and digital services. By improving cooling efficiency, IOCOOL reduces operational costs and energy consumption in high-density server environments. Effusio’s roadmap also supports broader commercial and industrial applications, including spaces requiring high-performance thermal management. The company seeks collaboration with research institutions such as ORNL to explore and prioritize applications, with the goal of scaling the technology to meet growing energy efficiency needs across multiple sectors.