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2026-2027 Cold Plate
Student Design Competition
2026-2027 Cold Plate
Student Design Competition
ASME K-16 coordinates with IEEE ITherm to hold an annual student design competition. Each year, a team of K-16 members develops the competition guidelines, reviews student submissions, and evaluates the best designs experimentally. We support students to travel to the ITherm conference and present their work through financial sponsorship and require testing support and supplies for the experimental evaluation. If you are interested in joining the organizing team or supporting the competition through financial or in-kind testing/manufacturing sponsorship, please email us at asmeheatsinkchallenge@gmail.com and asme.gr.k16@gmail.com.
Competition Overview & Guidelines
Competition Overview & Guidelines
For this competition, students will design, analyze, and optimize an additively manufactured cold plate to cool a computer chip via forced convection liquid cooling. Student teams will first design their cold plates and analyze them with a computational tool. Then, they will write a short white paper analyzing their designs and documenting the design process (due Jan 4, 2027). Student teams that have the highest predicted performance and most creative designs will have their designs by Fabric8Labs for experimental testing in the spring at Prof. Han Hu’s NED3 Lab using a Corintis Therminator Thermal Test Vehicle. Based on the results, representatives from the best-performing teams will be invited to present their work at the IEEE ITherm conference in May, where a winner will be selected based on evaluation from a panel of experts.
Complete guidelines are available in this PDF.
Competition Interest Form
Competition Interest Form
Students: Start forming your teams now! It's open to undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. You'll need to use your thermal and fluid skills to design and analyze a cold plate that could be manufactured with additive manufacturing.
Pre-register at this link for the latest competition updates, including the submission links: Google Forms
Competition Timeline
Competition Timeline
October 1, 2026: Guidelines Released
Jan 4, 2027: White Paper and Design File Submission Deadline (11:59 pm US Eastern Time)
Mid-February 2027: White paper evaluations completed and Semi-Finalists notified
February - March 2027: Design modifications requested (if needed) and printing by Fabric8Labs
March - April 2027: Experimental Evaluation at Prof. Han Hu’s NED3 Lab using a Corintis Therminator Thermal Test Vehicle
April 2027: Finalists Announced
June 1 - 4, 2027: Final Competition at IEEE ITherm 2027 (Denver, CO)
Eligibility & Team Guidelines
Eligibility & Team Guidelines
Eligibility: The competition is open to both undergraduate and graduate students at universities around the world. Students on internship/co-op are eligible to participate, provided they have not yet graduated. Each team can submit one cold plate design, but more than one team is allowed for each university.
Team Size: Teams can be of any size provided each team member’s contributions to the creation of the design and writing of the white paper. Similar to authorship on a journal paper, each person should make a significant contribution to the project.
Mentors\Advisors: While it is not required to have an official advisor, we encourage each team to identify a faculty member or industrial mentor who can provide feedback on their designs. However, we want to see the creativity, skills, and independent work of the students, not their mentors, in the designs.
Submission Information
Submission Information
Each team must submit a registration form and upload the following files by the white paper deadline (Jan 4, 2027 at 11:59 pm US Eastern Time):
White paper (PDF): Use the provided cold plate competition templates below, including the required section titles and Table I documenting your figure of merit calculations. Complete details of the requirements of the draft formatting are available in ITherm’s templates.
Word Template: Download from the Google Drive Folder [Note: The formatting in Google Docs is not representative of the ITherm requirements. Right-click on the File in Google Drive and download to open in Word]
LaTeX Template: Download or edit on Overleaf
CAD Files (STEP format required):
Base + Fin Plate Part File: Your designed fin plate, including the baseplate
Assembly: Complete assembly file or set of files used for your simulations
Example Final Simulation Files (any appropriate program): Upload a single zip file including a representative simulation of your final design configuration, including your calculated results. Make sure the file includes all the information to be opened on another computer. For example, in ANSYS, make sure to use the Export function rather than just sharing a saved file.
The submission links will be posted to our website and shared with those who fill out the competition interest form closer to the deadline.
Sponsors
Sponsors
Sponsors make this competition possible through both monetary and in-kind support. If you are interested in supporting the competition, please email us at asmeheatsinkchallenge@gmail.com.
Testing Sponsor (Experiments):
Testing Sponsor (Experiments):
Testing Sponsor (TTV):
Testing Sponsor (TTV):
Print Sponsor:
Print Sponsor:
TIM Donation:
TIM Donation:
Organizing Team
Organizing Team
This competition would not be possible without the support of numerous volunteers. Please email us at asmeheatsinkchallenge@gmail.com if you are interested in participating in the competition organization.
Thanks to all the people who make this competition possible, including:
Chair: Amy Marconnet (Purdue)
Co-Chair: Bharath Ravi (Celestica)
Testing:
Printing: Fabric8Labs: Ian Winfield, Tanner Immonen, Joey Marquis, Johnny Dufrane, and Michael Matthews
Communications Co-Chairs: Georges Pavlidis (UConn), Lingnan Lin (UMD), and Lang Yuan (Oracle)
Review Co-Chairs: Devahdhanush V.S. (U. Nebraska-Lincoln) and Tiwei Wei (UCLA)
Thermal Test Vehicle: Remco Van Erp (Corintis) and Matthew Reeves (Corintis)
Manifold Design: Ketan Yogi (A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics)
Tianli Feng (U. of Utah)
Chirag Kharangate (Case Western)
Kashif Nawaz (ORNL)
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