Summarizing results of International Polytechnic Winter School

3 February 2017 International activities 1948

International Polytechnic Winter School at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University has completed.

 Завершила работу Международная политехническая зимняя школа для студентов магистратуры в СПбПУ

Vice-Rector for International Relations D.G. ARSENIEV remarked: "Today’s universities should be open for international cooperation: interaction with overseas scientists, professors and students gives us new opportunities, sharing knowledge, culture, traditions".

As in 2016, both SPbPU professors and overseas professors were invited. The coordinators have already had the experience in Polytech Winter Schools arrangement, so they invited the professors they've already communicated with in different projects or educational programs. Jari BACKMAN from Lappeenranta University of Technology and Giacomo PERSICO from Politecnico di Milano gave lecture on Turbomachinery, Radek SKODA from Czech Technical University in Prague and Nathaniel TRUMBULL from ‎University of Connecticut gave the lecture on Nuclear Engineering, and Harald SCHWARZ from Brandenburg University of Technology did lecturing on High Voltage Engineering.

Участники Зимней школы побывали на Ленинградской атомной электростанции

According to the professors the students approved themselves with good grace. They asked lots of questions, and some of them were really complicated. It did not go noticed that students' level of knowledge has increased noteworthily.

As to the previous year educational process had pronounced practical approach. The students had a trip to the Plant of High–Voltage Equipment "Electroapparat", visited the Department of Siemens Company and Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant.

The volunteer engagement was successful this year. Volunteers swung into action energetically. They showed St. Petersburg to the overseas students, arranged excursions, easily solved emerging problems.

 Помимо запланированной программы, студенты из Исландии успели съездить в Москву

There was an informal meeting with the participants of SPbPU International Winter School to get them into contact together. There were also excursions to Hermitage and Catherine palace, and a trip to Pushkin.

The Coordinators of International Polytechnic Winter School make a point of such extra-curricular activities, because they give the impression about the whole event.

In comparison with the previous year the number of overseas students has greatly increased. The geography has also changed: for example, the students from Iceland School of Energy (Reykjavik) have joint International Polytechnic Winter School for the first time.

Andrea Morgan, Enzo A.J. Diependaal and Anja K. Ruess shared their impressions about studying in Russia.

– Andrea, Enzo, Anja, good afternoon! Where are you from?

– We are from Canada, Belgium and Germany. We are from different countries, and we are all studying at Reykjavik University and we decided to join International SPbPU Winter School and learn a bit about nuclear power.

– Do you like this winter school?

– Yes, absolutely!

– I would like to ask everyone about the advantages of this winter school.

Andrea: For us it’s really great because there is no nuclear power in Iceland, and there aren’t many opportunities for us to learn about nuclear engineering, so we had an opportunity for two weeks to study here and to learn about different sources of energy. It’s been really educational experience and it’s also been really interesting culturally, we’ve had an opportunity to live in Russia for a few weeks. You have a unique culture, and this was also a very fun experience.

 I agree with a previous speaker. It’s a good opportunity, especially if one goes furthest into nuclear.

Anja: I really like being here. We have the experts from different countries and also students from different countries getting together and sharing their experience because different countries have different approaches towards nuclear. I am from Germany, and we are facing out nuclear, and it’s very interesting to see how other countries still with it, especially waste management, different approaches…

– Have you had any difficulties with communication?

– Inside the university – no, we haven’t, but we had it outside, because we speak English, and you speak Russian. But inside the University everything was great!

– Where have you been while studying at Winter school?

– We’ve been to Moscow, and then came to St. Petersburg. Also we’ve been to the Hermitage museum, and yesterday we were at the North of the city– we were just looking around. 

– Would you like to return back?

– Yes, it would be nice! We would like to see more in your city, so it would be a good reason to return back.

– Thank you very much for the interesting interview!

These two weeks raced by, and were full of bright meetings and events. But the work of coordinators of international educational programs does not come to an end. Now there is a new student enrolment to the International Polytechnic Summer School. The list of visiting professors is already ready, the timetable has completed, and the approaches are composed. In summer 2017 the students are going to study Electrical Energy Industry, Turbomachinery and Nuclear Engineering.

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