Demonstrating Results of R&D Socialization

The Festival of Students’ R&D Socialization Projects has taken place at Astrakhan State University.

The event is taking place for the 2nd time. A year ago, its name was “the Festival of Student Science”, which was changed due to active introduction of socialization techniques into all the spheres of our students’ life.

The Assembly Hall of the Main Building of ASU could hardly receive all the visitors – students, professors, and administrative staff members of our University, to say nothing of students of Astrakhan’s secondary schools. The exposition included 52 projects; over 400 students of all the Departments of ASU developed them. The visitors could learn which cerebral hemisphere is the prevailing one for them, watch spectacular physical and chemical experiments, get into a mobile virtual reality by putting on 3D glasses, obtain their own fingerprint card, try cheese and vitamin drinks produced by applying innovative recipes, etc. The R&D Standup Contest became a new feature of the Festival: six students (one rep of each of our six Institutes) told about research activities of their Institutes in a humorous manner.

According to Prof. Anna Fedotova, Vice Rector of ASU for Research Activities, sustainable teams that include research supervisors, implementers of R&D projects, and support groups have been operating at each of our Departments for a long time. Teamwork forms the very foundation of our student socialization, including the R&D socialization. “We noticed not all our Departments are equally independent at creating and demonstrating their R&D”, Prof. Fedotova points out. “Some students prepared their projects themselves; other did that under careful supervision of their Deans and mentors, which we think were too active. It was pleasant for us to see active interaction between the Departments: the Festival made it possible for our students to share experience and new ideas, as well as make friends in the holiday atmosphere of the coming New Year”.

According to Prof. Sergey Khrapov, Research Supervisor of the Students’ Scientific Council and the Program of ASU “Socialization: CDIO Technologies”, the main task of the Festival was to attract as many students to science as possible. To meet the set goal, various tools were applied; active work of the students’ committee contributed much to that. Prof. Khrapov wished the gained experience of R&D socialization were applied, as it was a year ago, at the regional level.

Dmitry Bibarsov, Chairman of the Students’ Scientific Council of ASU, said that the organizing committee considered with some drawbacks of the system to vote to the prize of the audience’s sympathies, which were revealed last year. Individual tokens were handed to each Department (not more than 100 tokens per Department); their colors differed depending on which Institute they were given to. Tokens for our faculty looked differently. To avoid any forgery, each token had a signature of a member of the organizing committee. It was banned to vote for yourself. The secret commission determined the winners and the laureates; it inspected the presented projects all day round.

Assessing the represented R&D, Andrey Polyanskiy, Deputy Chairman of the Students’ Scientific Council of ASU, pointed out that most projects are hand-made; it took much time for our students to create them. The general impression of the Festival is positive – its participants, organizers, and guests confess that.

Pyotr Opanyuk, a student of the Institute of Humanities, became the most startling participant of the R&D Standup Contest. He says he participated in a number of humorous shows and knows how humor works. His dynamic performance, which included numerous poems, jokes, and dancing elements, produced a very good impression on the audience.

The final part of the event was long-expected for its participants. As a result of the audience’s voting, it was decided to grant:

• the 1st-degree diploma – to the Department of Secondary Professional Education;
• the 2nd-degree diploma – to the Department of Pedagogics, Social Work, and Physical Training;
• the 3rd-degree diploma – to the Agrarian Department.

The Organizing Committee has also decided to:

• grant laureate diplomas to the following teams of our Departments:

1) the team of the Agrarian Department for its project “Development of Sheep Cheese Range by Adding Vegetable Components”;

2) the team of the Department of Architecture & Design for its project “Breadboarding, or Crafting”;

3) the team of the Department of Social Communications for its project “Application of Sociological Techniques to Enhance Operating Efficiency of University Internet Portal”;

4) the team of the Department of Philology & Journalism for its project “Scientific Discussion: “Using Foreign Words: Fashion or Necessity?”

5) the team of the Department of Mathematics & Information Technologies for its project “Mobile Virtual Reality”;

6) the team of the Department of Secondary Professional Education for its project “Oleo-BIO-Derma Hand Cream. Nutrition & Regeneration”;

7) the team of the Historical Department for its project “Practice of Historical Reconstruction”;

8) the team of the Department of Physics & Technology for its project “3D Printer Assembled by Hand”;

9) the team of the Department of Business & Economy for its project “League of Managers”;

10) the team of the Department of Pedagogics, Social Work, and Physical Training for its project “Multidisciplinary Model of Fairy Tale Therapy”.

• grant diplomas of nominees to all the other teams of our Departments;
• grant diplomas of laureates in the R&D Standup Contest to Pyotr Opanuyk (a student of the Institute of Humanities), Renat Bisingaliev (a student of the Business Institute of Pedagogics & Psychology), and Tigran Avetisyan (a student of the Institute of Continuing Education);
• grant diplomas of nominees in the R&D Standup Contest to Alexander Petrov (a student of the Institute of Language & Communicative Business Strategies), Kamil Batyrkhanov (a student of the Institute of Researches & Solutions to Technological Tasks), and Stanislav Yakovlev (a student of the Innovative Institute of Natural Sciences).

The awards ceremony shall take place at the nearest meeting of the Students’ Scientific Council of ASU.

Our congratulations!