IFEC 2026 competition

Students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology won second place and received the Innovative Solution Award in the final of the International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC) 2026. The competition finale took place in Belgium in mid-July.

The award-winning team consisted of Adam Cieplak, Piotr Guz, Oskar Kędzierski, Bartosz Majczyna, Olaf Osiński, Jakub Sokołowski, Jakub Sztencel and Michał Zakrzewski. The students worked under the supervision of Jan Sitnik, MSc.

IFEC 2026: another success of our power electronics students

The competition comprised three stages and attracted more than 30 teams from around the world. The WUT team secured its place in the final by advancing through the semi-finals held in March in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Only seven teams qualified for the final round, which took place in Leuven, Belgium. This year's challenge required participants to design and build a 1 kW on-board charger for an electric vehicle.

"Our team spent a full week in Belgium. The event began with presentations by the hosts, showcasing the cutting-edge research carried out at EnergyVille and KU Leuven, followed by a welcome reception. It was an excellent opportunity to meet participants from other universities and talk with the organisers and industry representatives," recalls Jan Sitnik, MSc, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, who supervised the WUT team.

The following three days were devoted to commissioning and testing the converters developed by the finalists in EnergyVille's laboratories. Each team had access to a fully equipped professional laboratory workstation, while the final evaluation of the devices was carried out on a dedicated measurement setup that ensured identical testing conditions for all finalists.

After completing the tests, each team delivered a 15-minute presentation to the competition jury. The event concluded with an awards ceremony, during which the results were announced. The Warsaw University of Technology team was awarded second place and received the prestigious Innovative Solution Award.

"On our way to the finals, we were curious to see the solutions developed by the other teams. Once we arrived at the laboratory, however, it quickly became clear that we all shared the same intense stress and enthusiasm for perfecting our converters. We had only three days to make the final adjustments, and the laboratories were filled with constant soldering, testing and hours spent analysing oscilloscope screens. Working under such pressure required nerves of steel, but having access to laboratory power supplies similar to those we use at our university gave us confidence and peace of mind. After months of preparation, all the tension disappeared, and we are proud to return home as the world's second-best team," says Adam Cieplak, a student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and a member of the IFEC 2026 runner-up team.

IFEC 2026: another success of our power electronics students

As the team's supervisor, Jan Sitnik, MSc, points out, the students spent nine months developing the prototype of the electric vehicle on-board charger.

"Their dedication was especially evident during the final days of the competition, when they became the first team to successfully start up their device without any issues and immediately test it at full voltage and full power. As their supervisor, what makes me happiest is the knowledge and practical experience the students gained throughout the project, because that was ultimately the main goal of the competition. Considering last year's victory by the Warsaw University of Technology team and this year's second place combined with the Innovative Solution Award, I can confidently say that our University is an excellent place to develop expertise in power electronics and educate future specialists in this field," Jan Sitnik, MSc, says.