ASHRAE Region XIV proudly presents you the Winners of the first ASHRAE Region XIV Student Competition.
Winner: Francisco Beltrán.
Runner-up: Francisco Calhindro
Francisco Beltrán is an Industrial and Mechanical Engineer from Universidad de la República in Uruguay, boasting over a decade of diverse experience in industry and academia within the energy sector. Holding a Master of Science Degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, he is currently pursuing a PhD in solar photovoltaic-thermal technology and heat pumps at the same institution.
Francisco is also a teaching assistant in various master-level courses at KTH, such as Energy Management, Solar Energy Systems for Buildings and Cities, and Energy Supply Systems for Buildings. Additionally, Francisco assumes leadership roles, presiding over the Swedish Student branch of ASHRAE, chairing Uruguay’s National Future Energy Leaders Program, and being a board member of the NGO EcoReset Association. His contributions have been recognized globally, being selected as a Congress Future Energy Leader by the World Energy Council in 2023.
Francisco has also engaged as a speaker at international conferences like the Solar World Congress in Delhi in 2023 and the International Energy Agency’s Heat Pump Conference in Chicago in 2023, among others.
Congratulations Francisco!
Francisco Calhindro is currently pursuing his second MSc degree in Fluids and Energy at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. He holds a BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Coimbra and an MSc course in Thermal Systems from the same institution. For the past two years, he has been an invited assistant at his home institution.
Throughout his years as a student, driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a knack for applying theoretical concepts to real-world challenges, Francisco has attended more than 30 webinars, seminars, professional training sessions, and technical visits related to Energy and HVAC. In 2023, he was a research fellow at the startup SCIVEN as part of the BioCogen project – an integrated cogeneration system based on a biomass boiler and Organic Rankine Cycle. He was awarded a Merit Scholarship for Excellence by the Directorate General for Higher Education for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Francisco’s main areas of interest include Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, and Thermodynamics, both in their classical and applied forms, using numerical methods for problem-solving. He is also passionate about Energy Management and Renewable Energies, with specific interests in Turbomachinery, Thermal Equipment and Systems, HVAC, and Refrigeration. Recently, he has developed an interest in mathematical optimization applied to engineering.
Congratulations Francisco!