Alexei Sitnikov, Vice-President for Institutional and Resource Development: “We are interested in offering students dual programs to realize their potential in alma mater as well as in our Institute”
Startup-Tour 2016 is the most ambitious project in Russia and the CIS in search of promising innovative projects and the development of competencies start-up teams, who are implementing projects in the sphere of high technologies.
On session in Taganrog, which was held on 17-18 March, participated 1,148 people and 231 projects. An important part of the tour is the educational program “Future Trends in business and science for startups and entrepreneurs”, which provided master classes and workshops, personal project meetings; mentoring projects and pitch session; Competition of innovative projects in five areas; business meetings with key players in the market; meeting with business angels and investors.
Skoltech delegation in Taganrog was headed by Alexei Sitnikov, Vice-President for Institutional and Resource Development. “This stage of Startup Tour took place in the Southern Federal University (SFU)”, Sitnikov said, “There were many students, post-graduate students and researchers among the participants. Taganrog is a city with a vast amount of prospects. In Soviet times Taganrog Radio Engineering Institute was considered as one of the most prominent Universities in the country and even today students from SFU are proving this to be true.
Though we were offering students to consider our educational programs, our goal was not to lure them away from regional schools. We are interested in offering students dual programs to realize their potential in alma mater as well as in our Institute. Ideally, it is a format of joint programs between Skoltech and partners. For example, SFU is well known for their strong base in agro industry. The topic of biotechnologies in agriculture is very important for us, seeing we are getting involved in the agro program at the moment, as well as for Skolkovo Foundation, which just launched an agro cluster. Agro projects are a very interesting field for joint research. We also hope that partnerships with regional Universities will cover other scientific areas”.
Photos: Sk.ru