Congress on Research, Development and Innovation in Renewable Energies

Mayken Espinoza-Andaluz is a full professor at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) and co-supervisor of Ph.D. students in Heat Transfer and Energy Systems at Lund University. He earned his Ph.D. in Heat Transfer from the Department of Energy Sciences at Lund University. His areas of research include renewable energy, fuel cells, proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), physical and chemical phenomena, energy efficiency, Lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM), and computational modeling. He is a reviewer for several international journals, including the International Journal of Energy Research, the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, and Computers and Mathematics with Applications.

Jordy Santana-Villamar is mechanical engineer with a master's in Materials Science and Engineering. He conducted a research stay at Instituto de Carboquímica in Zaragoza, Spain, majoring in Vanadium-Redox Flow Batteries and Hydrogen Fuel Cell stack operation. Currently, he holds a research position and leads experimental research on Polymeric Electrolyte Fuel Cells at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL). His expertise also encompasses composite materials, particularly epoxy/graphite composites for bipolar plates in fuel cells, and the development of biodegradable chitosan-based materials for food packaging. As the editor of the conference proceedings for the Congress for Research, Development, and Innovation in Renewable Energies (CIDiER), he plays a key role in advancing research on renewable energies. He has published 15 scientific works on PEM fuel cell experimentation and epoxy/graphite composites in top academic journals.

Brayan Ordóñez-Saca is a research assistant at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Production Sciences of Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), where he is also pursuing a master´s degree in Mechanical Engineering Sciences. His research interests focus on fuel cells, specifically proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), and their performance through electrochemical evaluations. He has participated as a reviewer for ASME proceedings and has been involved in the International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE) on several occasions. He received a research grant to implement a study on waver energy, focusing on an oscillating water column system. His recent work has been directed toward the study and simulation of porous media using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for mass and charge transport in complex media.

Carlos Vallejo-Cervantes is a research assistant in the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Sources at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL). He was previously a teaching assistant for subjects including numerical calculus, physics, and vector mechanics and an active contributor to student representation. He has industry experience in mechanical design and the manufacturing and assembly of mechanical systems. His research interests focus on the fuel cells that optimize the flow field plate design of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from ESPOL.

Luis Rodríguez-Álava is a research assistant in the Renewable Energies Laboratory at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL). His research includes studies on mousetrap-powered vehicles and the dynamics of oscillating water columns, which was funded by CEDIA-project and resulted in a published paper. Luis has also served as a teaching assistant in Electricity and Magnetism and Theory of Machinery, supporting both laboratory experiments and student instruction. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in mechanical engineering, with a focus on system analysis, structural dynamics, and renewable energy. He is currently a Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Production Sciences student at ESPOL.