Student Project Marathon

New participants joined the International Students Project Marathon project, which Polytechnic University conducts jointly with foreign partners. The Institute of Energy of SPbPU and the Technical University of Madrid (UPM; Spain) have launched three new projects. Thus, since the beginning of 2021 Russian, Spanish, and Austrian teams have been working together on more than 10 projects in the fields of energy, materials science, and humanities.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the international Students Project Marathon opened up a new perspective. In addition to its original goal — to unite science, education, and project activities — another one was added: to create opportunities for virtual mobility, which in 2020 and 2021 remains almost the only way to acquire new competencies and international experience.

This week, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University held a series of online meetings with its strategic partner, Technical University of Madrid (UPM; Spain). On February 16, 18 and 19, representatives of international offices of SPbPU, Institute of Energy (IE), the Higher School of International Educational Programs (HS IEP) and the Institute of Engineering, Materials and Transport (IMM&T) negotiated with their foreign colleagues.

Online Student Project Marathon - is it possible? This was not only one issue discussed by the teams of SPbPU and the Technical University of Madrid (UMP, Spain) at a recent video conference. SPbPU representatives were Associate Professor of the Higher School of Physics, Materials and Technology (SPbPU Institute of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering and Transport) Ekaterina VASILIEVA and regional coordinator of cooperation with Ibero-American partners Svetlana KALIKINA. The Polytechnic of Madrid was represented by the Professor of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Director of Composites and Nanocomposites Lab Juan Manuel MUNOZ-GUIJOSA.

The SPbPU International Office and institutes PU continue to work on the preparation of the International Student Project Marathon. Despite the pandemic, new participants from all over the world are joining the event. To date, the main partner universities and areas in which groups of students will conduct research have already been identified. Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) remains a permanent participant in the Inter-national Student Project Marathon. On the part of the Austrians, the curators are pro-fessors Wolfgang SLANY and Nikolai SCHERBAKOV, the curator on the part of Poly-technic University is Associate Professor of the Institute of Computer Science and Technology Vadim PAK. The participants have identified a pool of topics on which the research is planned. For example, students will work on problems of recognition and generation of speech, texts, and emotional images; create a control system for drones for the delivery of goods, and even deal with a serious topic of the recognition and prediction of cancer using deep learning technology.

International student project marathons are a new phenomenon not only in Russia but also abroad. Their goal is to unite young scientists from different countries, develop student exchanges and receive new research results. Together with the Technology University of Graz (TU Graz, Austria), Polytechnic University is implementing 6 projects as part of the international student marathon. Russian and foreign experts - professors and young scientists - supervise the student groups.

Why is a student project marathon a step out from a comfort zone? What prospects await their participants in the future? What is the uniqueness of such projects? Professors of the Technical University of Graz Norbert ENZINGER and Sergio AMANCIO, who are the curators of the student welding project marathon from Austria, spoke about this and not only with the SPbPU International Services.

The international student project marathon has come to an end. The final forum was held at Polytechnic University, where participants from SPbPU and its strategic partner Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) presented the results of their work. In total, six international teams took part in the innovative international project. Students, post-graduate students, young scientists and teachers for many months have been working on serious problems from various research spheres; they presented the results of those at the final forum in the presence of an expert commission. The competent jury included Vice Rector for International Relations D.G. ARSENIEV, technical director of AUTODESK Russia Peter MANIN, president of the St. Petersburg branch of PMI Maxim GRISHIN, coordinator of student mobility program from TU Graz Lena NEUREITER, project management coordinator from SPbPU Nadezhda TSVETKOVA. Welcoming the participants, Dmitry ARSENIEV emphasized that it would not be easy to choose the winner: “The teams gathered at SPbPU are cream of the cream. There are no weak players here. During the year, you worthily solved the most difficult tasks. I hope that international student design marathons will become our constant practice, and next year we will bring together even more participants