SPbPU’s Energy Academy Launches Summer Season with International Energy Cooperation
The summer season of the International Energy Academy has reopened on the basis of the Institute of Energy. The IE team prepared a program for more than 140 students face-to-face and more than 180 — online.
International schools with energy directions have been held at Polytechnic University since 2016 and include several modules for short-term programs: «Electrical Power Engineering», «Nuclear Power Engineering», «Hydrogen Power Engineering», «Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development», «Turbomachinery». Course instructors are employees and graduate students of the Institute, and the latter were once students on these same international courses.
Last year a delegation of more than 50 students from Northwestern Polytechnic University (Xi’an, PRC) visited St. Petersburg, breaking the record for the number of people after the abolition of covid restrictions. This year IE welcomed 142 future power engineers from Xi’an and Shandong in person, and 185 online, but from Zhejiang University of the PRC. A delegation from Harbin also came to Polytechnic University: their university is interested in cooperation in the field of nuclear energy research.
The mixed program «face-to-face and online» appeared during the pandemic and is still in place: Polytechnic partners from different countries choose a convenient format of participation depending on their goals. Auditoriums equipped with media support allow for simultaneous lectures for both, making the courses accessible and mobile. The IE team expects online learning to continue, but hopes that face-to-face participation is definitely more attractive to students from abroad.
«The program becomes more complex year after year: now we don’t just teach, but also give case topics to research and defend at the end of the course. This is a certain motivation, interest, and also an opportunity to find common topics and issues that are interesting to us and our colleagues in the energy industry. This may result in a project, article or international exchange,» commented Ekaterina Sokolova, IE Deputy Director of International Affairs.
The program of the Academy is quite busy: in addition to educational intensives, a cultural program with a visit to the Hermitage Museum, excursion on motorboats, tourist photo cross around the city and, of course, a master class in the Russian language has been developed. Online videos and interactive materials have been prepared so that students can also learn about St. Petersburg and the country’s culture.
On the last day there was a big event: The Guest Speakers Day. Representatives of industry and industry spoke about the activities and projects of the leading energy companies: AO Power Machines, AO Atomenergoproekt and PAO Gazprom Neft. Such an event has become a tradition of the Academy and is a unique interaction with Polytechnic University’s partners.