IMMET Open Day
The history of the Institute of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering and Transport of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University counts more than 100 years. One of the Institute divisions – Materials Engineering Division – was established on the basis of the Department of Material Science and Technology, which was founded back in 1902 as the Department of Metallurgy. Its founders were prominent people – a polymath scholar D.I. Mendeleev, and an inventor and metallurgist D.K. Chernov. Rich history, strong educational school and great prospects for employment attract a great number of school leavers to the Institute of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering and Transport (IMMET), for whom there was an Open Day a week ago.
All the comers were greeted at the White Hall by the Professor, D. Sc. in engineering, the director of IMMET, A.A. Popovich. "Our Institute prepares highly skilled professionals who are able to develop and get modern materials and investigate their properties using innovative techniques and equipment", says Anatoly Anatolievich. "We give students profound knowledge of mechanics, physics, computer science and mathematics which allows the graduates of our institute to realize themselves both in engineering and science". A.A. Popovich introduced the students and their parents to IMMET activities, and told them about the goals and tasks of the Institute and prospective students.
For the first time to attend the Open Day of the Institute there were invited the representatives of different enterprises such as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the OJSC "Zvezda", P.G. Plavnik; the Chief Metallurgist of the JSC "Krasniy Oktyabr", M.K. Rumyantsev; the Head of the Staff Development Department of the JSC "Siloviye Mashiny", E.V. Mordvinova, and the Deputy Director General of the plant "Znamya Truda", V.V. Timofeev. Within the framework of the event, the industry representatives told about the areas of cooperation with the Institute of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering and Transport.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russia's leading manufacturer of multi-purpose, high-speed diesel motors OJSC "Zvezda", P.G. Plavnik, a graduate of the Polytechnic University, reported on the activities of the basic educational department in the enterprise, which organizes educational trainings, games and workshops. "Today’s production is virtually uncompetitive without a strong scientific support. If we want to remain in the sphere of high technologies and maintain the production on a high level, we should be always connected with a research school," said P.G. Plavnik. "With the help of the basic educational department we do not only provide training and internship, but we also take part in development activities, which is the base for a complete thesis work of the Polytechnic students".
As a part of the IMMET Open Day there also were excursions around the lab of "Research and Modeling of Structure and Properties of Metallic Materials" and around the Scientific and Technological Complex "Engineering Technologies". And the assistant professor of the department "Organic and Inorganic Chemistry" A.V. Semencha together with post-graduates V.A. Markov and M.V. Kurushkin staged a spectacular chemical show for school leavers and their parents. The spectators saw the experiment of magnesium combustion in a crystalline carbon dioxide, the experiments with liquid nitrogen, the experiment of passing electric current through a pickled cucumber, stalagmites from supersaturated solutions, chemical volcano, as well as some favorite experiments such as "flash" and "the torch of knowledge". After all, as Plutarch once said, "Mind is not a vessel that needs to be filled, but a torch, that needs to be lit."
Media Center, SPbPU