Sponsored by EUROVENT, on May 27th 2021, in collaboration with ISHRAE, the HVAC World Student Competition 2020 took place online. The competition was held between the competitors representing ASHRAE (United States), ISHRAE (India), CAHVAC (China), SAREK (South Korea), and REHVA (Europe).

The jury team members, Manuel Gameiro da Silva (REHVA), Jun Choi (SAREK), Joe Firrantello (ASHRAE), Narayanan Srikantan Chandrasekar (ISHRAE), and Angui Li (CAHVAC) were assigned to judge the performance and quality of the work of the competitors.

The competitors presented their work for 12 minutes and the jury members had a time to discuss and debate for 3 minutes. In addition, the competitors had already delivered an article and a poster about their work that, according to the competition rules, should be the outcome of a Master or Bachelor thesis. After the competition, the jury team graded the participants based on a guideline criteria of 8 points. Each jury member graded all the competitors except the one representing their own association. Evaluating the total quality of the work and the student’s performance during the presentation and the discussion, a ranking list was delivered. All competitors received a certificate of participation. It goes without saying that all participants have already been the winners of their country associations.

The results of the competition are as follows:

• 1st  Place: Maaike Leichsenring (REHVA, Netherlands, Europe)
• 2nd  Place: Jianyun Wu (CACHVAC, China)
• 3rd  Place: Song Yong Woo (SAREK, South Korea)

The best poster prize was awarded to:

• Maaike Leichsenring (REHVA, Netherlands, Europe)

The 3 winners received a certificate for winning the competition in addition to financial prizes.

The winner with 1st place, Maaike Leichsenring, graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime, and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. The title of her winning thesis is “Flow visualization of downward condensing ammonia in a gasketed plate heat exchanger”. This is the 2nd time that REHVA’s representative wins the 1st prize of the world student competition. REHVA’s first 1st prize in the HVAC World Student Competition was won in 2016 by Arash Rasooli, also from the same faculty and university, at CLIMA 2016, Aalborg, Denmark. He is now the coordinator of RCYP (REHVA Community of Young Professionals), attracting the student competitors as well as other young professionals in the fields of REHVA.