ASU Participates in Global Projects Program

Students and staff of Astrakhan State University have taken part in the Global Projects Program (GPP) by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts, USA). Dr. Inna Akhunzhanova, Director of the Institute of Strategy & Competitiveness of ASU, has told us about that.

“When a delegation of ASU came to the United States, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with which we had been in close cooperation for over six years, suggested that our University joined the GPP. This Program implies that students develop their projects outside their home countries: young specialists learn to work as members of international teams, overcome various intercultural obstacles and the language barrier.

Our University presented two projects: Energy-Smart Campus (supervised by Mr. Alexander Kondratyev, our Vice Rector for Administrative Affairs & Capital Construction, and by Mr. Sergey Muravyov, our Chief Engineer) and Economic Efficiency Assessment of Project to Analyze Underwater Pipelines in Caspian Sea (supervised by Dr. Alexey Rybakov, Director of our Institute of Researches & Solutions to Technological Tasks). The customer of the former project is ASU; the customers of the latter project are ASU and the Avrora LLC. The American students started working last February; they had online talks with our people and with the project customers; they learnt the essence of those projects and prepared their suggestions. In September, they came to Moscow; eight people went to Astrakhan and stayed here for half a month; they worked jointly with students of our University right on the research site.

As for the former research, our American guests audited energy-saving in the newly-erected nine-floor annex to our University’s main building; they provided particular solutions how to make this facility consume energy more efficiently. They had several suggestions; one of them is installation of piezoelectric floor; the more people step on it, the more energy is generates. As numerous students pass through the university premises, such a floor is suggested in the transit zone between the main building and the new annex.

The participants of the latter project used our swimming pool to conduct their research; they also visited the Avrora LLC. They concluded that the best option to apply an underwater robot is to survey the sloping concrete constructions, or slips, to set ships afloat.

I’d remark our US guests really enjoyed their time in Astrakhan: they liked our hospitality, the warm weather, the cultural program arranged specially for them, and, which is the most important thing, their participation in really valuable projects.

After demonstrating their findings to the project customers and making some corrections, the projects participants went to the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (which is also a partner of WPI) in Moscow, where they defended their developments. Their defense was successful, as well as useful for both parties.

Reps of ASU got WPI certificates that confirm their participation in the GPP. Further cooperation to implement new projects is being planned”.