The winner of the Energy Management course project announced
KTH students have designed a smarter and more sustainable Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Team Nyarugenge 3 came through as a winner in the annual competition.


How is it to design and optimize energy management in a rapidly growing African city? Fun and initially somewhat challenging according to the international master students in Energy Management course.
150 master students were challenged to design proposals for a smart and sustainable Kigali, developing ideas for optimal energy and resource efficiency through the integration of new technologies in energy, mobility, and ICT. Their work explored solutions in transportation, cooking, waste management, electrification, resilience, and construction. For the first time the competition was focusing on an African city. Due to the breadth of the task the competing students found it initially somewhat difficult to identify accurate data sources but diligently addressed the assignment ending up with creative optimized proposals.
The final event featured opening remarks from Rwanda’s ambassador Diane Gashumba andKTH Deputy President Mikael Lindström. Professor Hatef Madani, responsible for the master course, introduced the challenge. Thereafter all six groups presented the solutions.
Ultimately, team Nyarugenge 3 — Antonio Colodro Castro, Ardian Candra Pratama, Maghfira Risang Khairiza, Mona Sobhi, Paul Thellenberg, and Daniel Salvador Cabeza de Vaca Gomez — emerged as the winner. Team Nyarugenge 3 members are invited to Kigali to participate and present their work at the Nordic-Baltic Forum in Kigali in March 2026.
Runner-up: Nyarugenge 8 – Maja Elise Hoffknecht, Tanno Kambier, Jan Patrick Kochanski, Ricardo Andres Mendoza, Pablo Monzón Honrubia and Haryeni Yulita.
The challenge in the competition format of the 'Energy Management' course has been ongoing since 2017. In addition to Kigali, students have over years undertaken optimization initiatives in cities such as Tokyo, Valencia, university campuses in Sweden and an island in Finland.
