Member Spotlight: Global Immersion Cooling Association

February 17, 2026

Global Immersion Cooling Association (GICA) serves as a global knowledge hub and convening body for immersion cooling technologies that enable high-performance, compute-intensive autonomous and uncrewed systems. As onboard processing demands accelerate, GICA works to ensure thermal management is recognized as a foundational component of next-generation system design.

Value of GICA’s AUVSI Membership

Shruti Rai explains that AUVSI membership provides GICA with a strategic platform to connect immersion cooling expertise with the broader uncrewed systems ecosystem. As autonomy, edge computing, and AI-driven decision-making expand platform capabilities, they also increase power density and thermal complexity.

GICA’s board and membership reflect a cross-section of the ecosystem, including companies advancing propulsion, electromechanical systems, and enabling hardware for uncrewed platforms. Through participation in industry forums such as XPONENTIAL and collaboration with member organizations including founding member Litens, GICA connects real-world technology demonstrations with technical guidance, education, and standards advocacy.

“AUVSI plays an essential role in fostering alignment across the ecosystem,” Rai says, emphasizing that collaboration is critical to ensuring performance, reliability, and sustainability keep pace with innovation.

Exciting Industry Developments

GICA sees the rapid convergence of autonomy, edge computing, and AI-driven decision-making as one of the most consequential developments in uncrewed systems. As platforms become more capable and independent, onboard computing requirements are increasing dramatically. This shift is driving demand for new approaches to thermal management that can support higher power densities in smaller, more mobile, and often harsher operating environments.

Immersion cooling presents an opportunity to enable longer mission durations, improved system reliability, and expanded processing capability. According to Rai, smarter, more resilient, and more energy-efficient uncrewed systems will unlock new applications across defense, infrastructure, energy, transportation, and environmental monitoring.

Industry Challenges

A central challenge facing the uncrewed systems sector is balancing rapid innovation with reliability, safety, and sustainability at scale. As systems grow more powerful and complex, thermal constraints, energy efficiency, and hardware longevity increasingly shape operational outcomes.

Without shared best practices and clear technical guidance, organizations risk performance bottlenecks, higher failure rates, and increased environmental impact. Rai underscores the need for cross-industry collaboration, shared data, and education around enabling technologies such as advanced cooling and materials compatibility.

Industry associations, including AUVSI, play a vital role in fostering alignment and accelerating responsible adoption across a rapidly evolving ecosystem.

GICA’s Role in the Industry’s Future

GICA positions itself as a global standards advocate and knowledge leader for immersion cooling technologies that support high-performance autonomous and uncrewed systems. By bringing together manufacturers, fluid suppliers, system designers, operators, and researchers, the association works to reduce adoption barriers and promote safe, interoperable, and sustainable solutions.

As compute-intensive platforms continue to evolve, GICA aims to ensure that thermal management is treated as a strategic enabler of performance rather than an afterthought. Through education, collaboration, and engagement with industry stakeholders, the association is helping shape an uncrewed systems ecosystem that is technologically advanced, operationally resilient, and aligned with long-term sustainability goals.

Support for High Safety Standards

As an industry association, GICA advances high safety standards by convening its global membership around best practices for safe design, deployment, and operation of advanced technologies. The organization provides a neutral forum where members collaborate on safety principles, exchange lessons learned, and address emerging regulatory and technical considerations.

Through working groups, technical discussions, and engagement with regulators and standards bodies, GICA promotes harmonized, risk-based approaches that elevate safety expectations across the ecosystem. By fostering collaboration rather than competition, the association supports the development of safer, more reliable uncrewed technologies worldwide.