Keynote – Ayse K. Coskun, AI Data Centers as Flexible Loads. Rethinking Power and Performance

Prof. Ayse K. Coskun

Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University.

This talk explores how the rapid growth of AI is transforming data centers into major power consumers—and how, with the right technologies, data centers can become valuable grid resources instead.

I will discuss emerging approaches to making AI workloads power-flexible, enabling data centers to dynamically adjust consumption in response to grid conditions while meeting performance constraints. Drawing from real-world deployments, the talk highlights how grid-interactive data centers can accelerate interconnection and support a more resilient power grid.

Prof. Ayse K. Coskun is a full professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Boston University. She is also serving as the interim Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development at the College of Engineering. She received her PhD degree from the Computer Science and Engineering Department at UC San Diego in 2009 as a member of the System Energy Efficiency Lab.

Her research interests are broadly in design automation, computer architecture, and embedded systems, particularly focusing on energy efficiency, thermal challenges, and using ML-powered analytics for system management. She received the Ernest Kuh Early Career Award in 2017 for her contributions to energy-efficient system-level design and an IBM Faculty Award in 2020 for her work on applying AI-based methods for DevSecOps.