The student team H-Bridges from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, is participating in the semifinal stage of the prestigious international competition IEEE International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC), held as part of the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC 2026) in San Antonio, USA, from March 22 to 26. The presentation of the team’s results to the judges took place on March 22, while the results regarding advancement to the next stage are expected in mid-April.
H-Bridges brings together students who, through year-long multidisciplinary projects, develop innovative and energy-efficient technical solutions. For seven consecutive years, the team has successfully presented its work at the IFEC competition, organized under the auspices of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s leading organization in the field of electrical and electronics engineering.
The IFEC semifinal stage gathers 11 of the best student teams from around the world, who present and defend their technical solutions before an international jury. At this stage, not only innovation is evaluated, but also the team’s ability to develop a reliable, efficient, and functional device capable of operating in real-world conditions. It is in the semifinals that student projects are tested against global technical standards and compared with solutions developed by top young engineers worldwide, highlighting those with potential for further industrial application. For this reason, the cost of the device is also an important evaluation criterion.
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The IEEE APEC conference is one of the most significant global events in the field of power electronics, bringing together leading researchers, engineers, and representatives of technology companies from around the world. The conference showcases state-of-the-art solutions in power conversion, energy management, and transport electrification, and hosting the IFEC semifinals within such an environment further emphasizes the importance and prestige of the competition.
This year’s task for the H-Bridges team is to develop a bidirectional on-board charger for electric vehicles—a device that, in addition to conventional battery charging, enables energy to be fed back from the vehicle to the power grid. This concept, known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G), represents one of the key steps toward the development of smart energy systems, where electric vehicles become active participants in balancing electricity supply and demand.
Developing such a device requires achieving high efficiency, compactness, and reliability, which represents a significant engineering challenge even in industrial environments. According to the competition requirements, the solution must meet strict technical criteria, including a nominal power of 1 kW, a minimum efficiency of 92 percent at nominal load, high power density, and plug-and-play functionality. In addition to performance, special attention is given to device safety, electrical isolation, reliable operation in both directions of energy flow, as well as the economic feasibility of the selected components.
This year’s H-Bridges team consists of 25 members and is organized into three sub-teams: hardware, firmware and control, and fundraising and public relations. During the one-year project cycle, students independently go through the entire process—from concept and design, through prototyping and testing, to presenting their solution before an international jury. This approach allows students to gain experience that goes beyond the scope of traditional academic education. The team’s motto is: “Save on iron and copper through the smart use of silicon and software.”
Consistency in results is one of the greatest strengths of the H-Bridges team. The team has won first place at the IFEC competition twice—in 2005 and 2019—when they developed an electric bicycle drive that successfully passed all technical tests without penalty points and achieved outstanding efficiency. In addition to these victories, the team has reached final rounds multiple times and secured high second-place finishes, with a total of nine international awards and recognitions. Furthermore, over the past seven years, H-Bridges members have received 12 national awards, and notably, four startup companies in Serbia have emerged from the H-Bridges team.
H-Bridges
