Ephrata High School students in the Industrial Arts & Technology program stepped inside a large-scale electrical-mechanical project. This May, they toured the 5 Megawatt blockchain data center with The Salcido Connection’s CEO, Malachi Salcido.

With their teacher Dale Hagy, the students learned first-hand about cryptocurrency, data space management, and the blockchain network—right in with thousands of computationally-powerful machines, each putting electricity to work in solving complex problems, and producing significant heat and airflow as a byproduct.

The management of the demand, load, and thermal energy creates distinct challenges which, if solved properly can lead to potential profit—and if improperly handled, can lead to catastrophic physical failure, including risk of fire.

This tour presents an excellent opportunity for high school students to experience up-close the reality of digital technology around us as it interacts with the physical world – and presents many considerations for future employment and business opportunities.