Developing a Global Mindset for Energy Systems Career
For Diego Tosar Rovira, MS’25, energy systems, a combination of strong experiential academics and student engagement opportunities at Northeastern gave him a holistic education that emphasized a global perspective on energy systems challenges, while providing opportunities to build specialized skills.
With an undergraduate degree in mechanical and industrial engineering and eight years of experience developing and managing engineering and construction projects Diego Tosar Rovira, MS’25, energy systems, decided to pursue an advanced degree in renewable energy systems.
As he searched for graduate programs both in his home country of Uruguay and abroad, Tosar Rovira discovered several universities with solid academic programs, but none matched what he was looking for. “I wanted a program with a holistic vision about the energy industry that addressed technical, business, and regulatory issues,” he says.
He found it at Northeastern, where a diverse and collaborative community offered him a comprehensive set of educational experiences that reflected a global perspective. “You need to tackle problems on a local level with a global mindset,” Tosar Rovira says. “The energy systems program gives students the whole picture of the renewable energy industry.”
From the multidisciplinary academic program to project-based coursework, student clubs, and competitions, Tosar Rovira received a broad understanding of renewable energy systems challenges, and developed specialized skills such as risk analysis and financial modeling to help him succeed in the field.
Multidisciplinary project-based coursework
Tosar Rovira elected to take the coursework track during his master’s program and gained research and hands-on technical experience in his classes. He participated in class projects that addressed the impact of renewable energy penetration on electricity prices, the use of AI and machine learning to predict solar power output, the evaluation of hydrogen storage technologies, and the development of solar and battery power storage systems on the Northeastern campus. “They were amazing learning experiences,” he says.
One key success factor was collaborating with students from across the globe. “Northeastern is a very diverse community and it does an excellent job of helping students interact with each other,” Tosar Rovira says. “I worked with people from all parts of the world in classes and clubs, which is very helpful considering that today’s energy problems are the whole planet’s energy problems.”
He also benefited from the multidisciplinary curriculum, which rounded out his knowledge with finance courses, including Economic Decision Making, Financial Management for Engineering, Renewable Energy Development, and Topics in Energy Economics. “Financial management classes in particular were pivotal to me,” he notes. “What I know about finance I learned at Northeastern and now I am very confident in my skills,” he adds.
Northeastern University Energy Systems Society
Student groups provided additional multicultural experiences, while also giving him an opportunity to build his leadership skills. After joining the Northeastern University Energy Systems Society (NUESS), he assumed the role of president. “It was the central piece of my Northeastern experience,” Tosar Rovira says.
He helped organize the group’s signature event, the annual Energy Conference, which brings together industry, researchers, students, and faculty focused on energy solutions. Tosar Rovira says overseeing the planning of the event helped enhance his leadership skills. Nearly 400 people attended the 2024 event, which featured panel discussions and presentations on renewable energy and other energy-related issues. Students had opportunities to network with representatives from energy system companies, many of which are located near Northeastern’s Boston campus.
“Boston is one of the biggest hubs for climate technology, and there is so much going on here,” he adds.
As the NUESS president, he also organized on-site visits and events in partnership with Massachusetts companies, including Schneider Electric, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and ISO New England, a nonprofit that transmits electricity throughout New England.
Isaac Premkumar, MS’26, data analytics engineering, and Ishan Chaudhary, MS’26, data analytics engineering, received a Microsoft Open Source AI Hackathon judge’s choice award for MedQGraph, an AI-integrated tool to store and analyze medical records so they can be retrieved even when electronic health record systems are down.
Tosar Rovira found joining NUESS’s competitive teams was another way to build skills. He participated on the Solar District Cup’s finalist team in 2023. The competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, tasks multidisciplinary student teams with designing and modeling distributed energy systems for a campus or urban district.
“It gave me the chance to put into practice what I was learning in my research projects,” says Tosar Rovira says.
With his Northeastern experience, Tosar Rovira secured a job before graduation. He was hired as a business developer at Kendall Sustainable Infrastructure in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a plan to start in May 2025. “The people who hired me were very impressed with Northeastern’s energy systems program and the many different energy industry issues I could speak to,” Tosar Rovira says.
For all his accomplishments, Tosar Rovira received a 2025 Master’s Leadership Award from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern. Now he is looking ahead to the next phase of his career at Kendall Sustainable Infrastructure. “I’m going to be on the project acquisition side, evaluating projects through financial analysis and due diligence, and selecting projects to move forward with,” he adds.