International Polytechnic Summer School – 2018 is open

The International Polytechnic Summer School has officially started: today Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University greeted its first participants. This year, the number of participating students exceeded 700 people: the Polytechnic University’s international summer school keeps the status of the biggest in Russia. We can very well say that the international event taking place at SPbPU has brought together young men and women from practically all continents of the globe: participants came from China, U.S., Spain, Portugal, India, Mexico, Brazil, Algeria, Australia, and more than 30 other states. In the course of two months, under direction of leading Russian and foreign professors and business and industry executives, young people will be studying space, power engineering, and information technologies; civil engineering; the Russian language and culture; business, management, and food industries; and STEM disciplines.

Taking into account the intensive students’ agenda, which is on a very tight schedule, the opening ceremony was taking place at two venues simultaneously: the international campus and the SPbPU R&D Building.

The Resource Center of the SPbPU international campus accommodated more than 150 students who had chosen to study the Russian language and culture, physics of plasma, biomedicine and space technology. SPbPU Vice Rector on International Relations D.G. ARSENYEV, Director of the Institute of Physics, Nanotechnologies and Telecommunications (IFN&T) S.B. MAKAROV, Director of the Higher School of International Educational Programs (HSIEP) V.V. KRASNOSHCHEKOV and other representatives of SPbPU international services and institutes greeted those young people who for this summer have become Polytechnic students.

“The International Polytechnic Summer School has already turned into a good SPbPU tradition. At the start of the project in 2012, 120 students came to take part in 8 educational modules. In 2018, the International Polytechnic Summer School is hosting already more than 700 students from all over the world; they will be studying in about 30 educational modules in diverse areas of study. And, of course, the subject of special pride for all of us is the fact that the International Polytechnic Summer School is one of the largest in Russia. We hope that in the future its educational programs will expand with new modules and host even more international students,” SPbPU Vice Rector on International Relations D.G. ARSENYEV pointed out in his greeting remarks.

Vice Rector ARSENYEV also stressed that SPbPU, as one of the leading universities of Russia, pays a lot of attention to internationalization of the higher education. In accordance with this, the university implements a broad spectrum of international educational programs: Master’s degree programs in English, double degree programs, exchange programs, etc. “We hope that after the International Polytechnic Summer School is over, many of you will get interested in continuing education under other SPbPU educational programs,” the Vice Rector on International Relations said.

The innovation module dedicated to the Space Technologies, has got high appraisal from officials of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU has been a specialized UN unit since 1947; Editor’s notes). This year it has increased greatly: the number of applicants interested in studying the far out space has doubled. As pointed out S.B. MAKAROV, Director of the IFN&T, the team of which had made major contributions in organization of the module, the agenda developed for the participants of the School is very intensive and broad: it includes lectures and practical classes from leading experts from all over the world about design of space vessels, active nuclei of galaxies and search for variable stars, as well as a trip to the Svetloe Radio Astronomy Observatory, where one of the largest radio telescopes in the world is located.

Another module implemented by IFN&T is named “Plasma physics and controlled nuclear fusion”. During the training, students will get acquainted with the latest scientific achievements related to nuclear and thermonuclear physics.

From year to year, the interest of foreign students in studying Russian keeps growing. As Director of HSIEP V.V. KRASNOSHCHEKOV pointed out, this summer, more than 250 students will come to attend classes dedicated to the Russian language, culture, literature, culture, politics, and arts. The students will have grammatical and lexical classes, lessons at the lingaphone classes, seminars and lectures of leading Russianists and experts from the business industry. Altogether, during the Summer School 2018, international students will be studying Russian in approximately 30 groups of different qualification levels.

The debut educational modules of 2018 will be the “Molecular gastronomy,” where under direction of the Chef Kirill KLYUKVIN the students will take part in fairy culinary master classes, and the “Biomedical engineering” within the frame of which professor of the Leibniz University of Hannover (Germany) Birgit GLASMACHER will teach a course of lectures.

Nearly 200 students got together at the SPbPU R&D Building: on the basis of the Institute of Energy and Transport Systems (SPbPU IE&TS) the Summer School participants will study Nuclear Engineering, Turbomachinery, Electrical Engineering, and another 2018 debut module on the “Oil & Gas in Energy Industry.”  

SPbPU Vice Rector on Science and Research V.V.SERGEYEV greeted the audience. “Each year, our specialists master existing and create new programs, harmonically complimenting theoretical classes with practical lessons. SPbPU has many highly professional specialists from all over the world; our scholars develop various areas of science and technology, and the power sector is one of these areas. During the next several weeks, leading scholars, researchers, and teachers will share their expertise with you. To consolidate your new knowledge, you will visit major St. Petersburg enterprises. And, no doubt, you will have a really unique opportunity to meet and make friends with young people from various countries, gain invaluable experience of inter-cultural communication,” the Vice Rector pointed out.

For the purpose of their education, power engineering students will visit various enterprises in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region. They will go to the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant; the leading Russian power machine building holding company ZAO REPH; the Siemens Company, the power machine building company Power Machines, the high-voltage equipment plant Elektroapparat, and many other production facilities.

Director of IE&TS N.A. ZABELIN stressed that the team of the Institute has been engaged during this year in the development and implementation of the most relevant disciplines corresponding to current trends in the curricula. For reading lectures and holding seminars, representatives of key companies and enterprises were invited to the power engineering modules. Besides this, as was the case last year, prominent specialists from foreign universities will come to SPbPU: professor of Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (Germany) Harald SCHWARZ, professor of Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy) Roberto FARANDA, professor of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria) Behnam ZAKERI, and many others.

After the warm greetings from the leaders of the Polytechnic University, good wishes of the coordinators of educational modules and presentation of memorable souvenirs, the students went to their first lessons. However, before going to auditoriums, all school participants went out and released balloons into the sky as a symbol of friendship, summer, and the cheerful years of studentship. Many interesting lectures, fascinating projects, colorful excursions, and interesting visits are yet to come. You will be able to read about this and not only in the news on the official Polytechnic website: do not miss the updates!