Siberian Federal University: SIBFU discusses the training of engineering personnel in Yenisey Siberia REC education project
On 2-3 March 2022, Yenisey Siberia REC held an kickoff seminar on the New Education, where speakers discussed innovations in engineering education, forms of education in the digital world and the prospect of participation in the Advanced Engineering Schools federal project on the basis of Siberian Federal University.
During the seminar, the participants accumulated the experience of the Model of System Changes of Multilevel Engineering Education federal innovation platform, which was recognized as the best in Russia in 2021. This experience can form the basis of the application of Siberian Federal University to the Advanced Engineering Schools federal project.
Important theses were voiced at the panel discussion, which was attended by head of the REC Sergey Verkhovets, vice-rector for Academic Affairs of Siberian Federal University Denis Guts, Igor Frolenkov, head of the M4: Material Science, Mining, Metallurgy, Machinery project within the Priority 2030 program, Vladimir Baranov, director of the School of Nonferrous Metals and Materials Science (SibFU), Denis Kapulin, acting director of the School of Space and Information Technology (SibFU), Mikhail Pervukhin, director of the Polytechnic School (SibFU), lecturers of engineering cources. The event was moderated by Natalya Mironkina, head of the Department for Youth Affairs and Career Guidance at Russian Aluminum Management JSC.
They considered the role of project activities in the training of engineers, the new competencies of lecturers and the creation of infrastructure for engineering creativity.
The director of the School of Non-Ferrous Metals and Materials Science emphasized that project activities in education are in demand, but they need to be developed in order to increase the number of start-ups suitable for real production.
“Project activity, when a student comes from an idea to a finished product, has proven its effectiveness, but the downside is that there are very few such projects. In terms of the level of student work, I see that it is growing every year. Today, some projects have a sufficient degree of automation and are relevant for production. Some student projects, after a certain refinement, are introduced to enterprises. But our task is to find a way to scale up this process,” commented Igor Frolenkov, head of the M4 strategic project, the implementation of which demands highly qualified engineers.
“We should not be in a situation where a project is created for the sake of a project. Any project’s must-have is a stakeholder, a tasks set from the industry and a process to achieve the goal. To scale up the results, it is necessary to clearly define whether we understand the project approach as a tool to achieve real goals or take it as an ideology, and what is the role of the stakeholder in the project approach within the framework of the educational process,” Mr Frolenkov noted.
“The Advanced Engineering Schools project provides that partner companies become ambassadors and, in fact, the educational and production processes should be merged in order to achieve the designated joint result. On the one hand, this is a challenge for us as an educational organization, because the infrastructure, staff and educational programs must be of the appropriate level. On the other hand, during the CDIO project, Siberian Federal University has proved its worth, and proved our achievements. Today, this case should be replicated and reconfigured for advanced engineering schools,” Mr Guts said.
The kickoff seminar was held as part of the implementation of the Educational Models for Ensuring Sustainable Development project of one of the projects of Yenisey Siberia REC.