Jun 12, 2025

The competition was fierce at the 15th CLIMA World Congress in Milan, Italy, on 5th June 2025, as top student talent went head-to-head at the REHVA Student Competition and HVAC World Student Competition. Eurovent Certification is a long-standing sponsor of both awards, with International Director, Ali Nour Eddine on hand to present the prizes. 

REHVA Student Competition 

Each year, REHVA, (the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations), organises a competition in Europe to honour and recognise the most outstanding HVAC students. 

Prior to the competition, each REHVA member association is allowed to nominate one candidate per country, following its own national competitions. The works submitted to the competition are based on a master's or bachelor's theses and can be on any topic in the field of heating, ventilation, or air conditioning. In addition, a ‘Best Poster’ award is granted based on the scientific level of the submission, and the graphical quality of the poster.

At the competition, each finalist is given the opportunity to present their paper in front of the judging panel, before the winner is announced at the award ceremony. 

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This year’s finalists included:

Karolina Prusicka: University of Sheffield (UK), selected by CIBSE
Paper: Facade trade-offs between embodied and operational carbon for future climate: A case study of a high-rise residential building in the UK.

Jakub Černák: Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic), selected by STP
Paper: Revitalization of traditional cottage in Kopanice.

Ana Pilar Gimeno Sobreviela: University of Zaragoza (Spain), selected by AYECYR
Paper: Analysis of Indoor Air Quality and ventilation in the industry: a case study of the textile sector.

Mathilde Pourrat: INSA of Strasbourg (France), selected by AICVF 
Paper: Analysis of nature-based design tools impact on microclimates. A pre-study to raise awareness among urban planners.

Jessica Stoller: Lucerne School of Engineering and Architecture HSLU (Switzerland), selected by DIE PLANER
Paper: Optimisation of refrigeration systems in supermarkets operating with carbon dioxide.

Artturi Junttila: Aalto University, (Finland), selected by FINVAC
Paper: Utilization of district heating return water and backup heating in new apartment buildings.

Zahra Tabatabaei Mirhosseini: Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands), selected by TVVL
Paper: Increasing self-consumption of PV power with load shifting by smart indoor temperature control.

Hans Kristjan Aljas: Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), selected by EKVU
Paper: CO2 sensors: quantifying challenges of large-scale indoor air quality assessment.

Mandea Bianca-Nicoleta and Barbu Daniel-Constantin: Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest (Romania), selected by AIIR
Paper: Eco-friendly heat: solar air collectors crafted with recycled materials for low-income housing.

Dejan Lepojević: University of Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (Serbia), selected by KGH-Smeits
Paper: Integration of a solar thermal system into a district heating system.

Lukáš Michalák: Slovak University of Technology in Bratislav (Slovakia), selected by SSTP
Paper: Ventilation and partial air-conditioning of classrooms and local exhaust ventilation of laboratories in an educational building.

Beniamino Fambri: Politecnico di Milano-Energy Engineering (Italy), selected by AiCARR
Paper: Detection and diagnosis of operating faults of a water-to-water heat pump using artificial neural networks.

Zoltán Takács: Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary), selected by MMK
Paper: The impact of HVAC electrification and grid decarbonization on building-level CO2 emissions.

The judging panel included Livio Mazzarella (AiCARR), Uwe W. Schulz (Die Planner), Maja Todorovic (KGH-Smeits), Tim Dwyer (CIBSE), Tiberiu Catalina (AIIR) and Frank Hovoka (AICVF).

This year the top prize at the REHVA Student Competition went to Beniamino Fambri. Second prize was received by Mandea Bianca-Nicoleta and Barbu Daniel-Constantin and third place was secured by Mathilde Pourrat. The Best Poster award was granted to Jessica Stoller.

But there was little time for Beniamino to celebrate. As it’s a CLIMA World Congress year, the winner of the REHVA Student Competition automatically becomes the European representative in the HVAC World Student Competition.

HVAC World Student Competition

Every three years since 2016, REHVA, along with six MoU partners - ASHRAE (USA), CAHVAC (China), FAIAR (South America), ISHRAE (India), SAREK (South Korea) and SHASE (Japan) - put students forward for the HVAC World Student competition.

During the CLIMA World Congress, REHVA becomes the organiser of the competition, featuring one candidate from each partner continent or region. The selection of candidates is undertaken by the respective MoU partner associations. 

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This year’s finalists included:

Da-Sung Jung and Se-Hyeon Kim: Pukyong National University (Korea), selected by SAREK
Paper: Evaluation of the effectiveness of transfer learning-based optimal control algorithms.

Mokshika Arora: Faculty of Technology, CEPT University of Ahmedabad (USA), selected by ASHRAE
Paper: Addressing solar heat gain, daylight access and visual comfort with fixed external shading devices: A simplified approach.

Hidetoshi Maruyama: Department of Architecture, Waseda Univeristy in Tokyo (Japan), selected by SHASE
Paper: Improving building envelope performance during retrofit for building decarbonization.

Dongjia Han: Tsinghua University, Beijing (China), selected by CAHVAC
Paper: Air purifiers in residences: cost-effectiveness and optimization strategies. 

Beniamino Fambri: Politecnico di Milano-Energy Engineering (Italy), selected by REHVA
Paper: Detection and diagnosis of operating faults of a water-to-water heat pump using artificial neural networks.

After a nervous wait, the finalists were announced by the judging panel, including Livio Mazzarella (REHVA), Vikrant Aute (ASHRAE), Junta Nakano (SHASE), Jin Kyun Cho (SAREK) and Junjie Liu (CAHVAC).

Beniamino Fambri once again reigned supreme and was crowned HVAC World Student champion.

Eurovent Certification is a dedicated sponsor of both student awards, using it as an opportunity to both encourage and recognise the rising stars of the industry. Our warm congratulations go to Beniamino Fambri for his outstanding achievement and to all his fellow finalists.

You can find out more about REHVA’s student competitions at www.rehva.eu