Students participating in Skoltech’s 2018 Innovation Workshop have come from all over the world to study at the institute. From Russia to Asia, to South America and beyond, these talented future entrepreneurs, researchers and engineers are working towards their master’s degrees – and benefitting from the workshop experience.

Alexey Fedoseev studied robotics and mechatronics at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, graduating with honors. While searching universities for his master’s degree, Fedoseev said it was important to join an institute that was “doing innovative work and creating real things that can improve people’s lives.”

He previously worked with research projects that did not have future development potential, so Skoltech stood out as a different place. Fedoseev learned of Skoltech from the media and colleagues and was impressed from his first campus visit.

On the Space and Engineering Systems track for his master’s degree, Fedoseev has been teamed for the Innovation Workshop’s innovation project with students from Photonics and Quantum Materials, Data Science and Life Sciences departments. He thinks it could help them all develop better communication skills and the ability to work productively with people they’ve just met – proficiencies they are likely to use in their careers.

Tanvir Ahmed comes to Skoltech from Bangladesh, where he received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Technology. He is starting his second year on the Energy Systems track at Skoltech and participating in the Innovation Workshop now, as he was unable to be in Moscow for the start of last year’s event. Still unsure of his career plans, Ahmed wants to continue working in research and is considering enrolling in a Ph.D. program; he would like to eventually return to Bangladesh and share his international academic experience with others.

Ahmed says there are many opportunities to learn during the Innovation Workshop, especially in terms of collaborating within a cross-disciplinary team and using its members’ varying backgrounds for success. Working with international mentors – as well as professors from Skoltech’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (which organized the Innovation Workshop) – also helps students to understand business modeling and the startup culture, he added.

Jonathan Tirado and Juan Esteban Heredia Mena are both first-year master’s students from Ecuador. The two studied electronic and control engineering at the National Polytechnic University; at Skoltech, Tirado is on the Energy Systems track, while Heredia Mena currently studies in the Space and Engineering Systems department.

Both are pleased their Skoltech experience and the challenges posed during the Innovation Workshop. Tirado did not expect the program to last so long, thinking it would only take a few days, but he appreciates the four-week opportunity to build connections and share ideas with mentors, as well as receiving their feedback. “It’s important to learn how to express your thoughts and how to share them with others,” he explains.

Heredia Mena agrees: “We are learning to communicate better and understand how to explain research projects to business people. Since they often make financial decisions, they need to understand the value in our projects.”

Follow the progress of Skoltech students during the 2018 Innovation Workshop with previous stories on this month-long course:

 

• The international mentor’s approach to Skoltech’s Innovation Workshop: “Think globally!”
• A closer look at Skoltech’s students original project ideas from the 2018 Innovation Workshop
• A Zimbabwean biotechnology master’s student shares her path to Skoltech and initial impressions of the Innovation Workshop
• A world’s-eye view from international mentors on Skoltech 2018 Innovation Workshop
• A closer look at Skoltech students’ inventive 2018 Innovation Workshop projects
• “This is a huge experience!” A student’s take on the 2018 Innovation Workshop at Skoltech
• International mentors at Innovation Workshop praise the program as they share their experience with students
• Learning by doing: Skoltech students focus on their Innovation Workshop projects
• Skoltech students share their initial impressions of the 2018 Innovation Workshop
• Professors share Skoltech’s expertise as students begin preparing their 2018 Innovation Workshop projects
• Students take an “interstellar tour” to learn English and communications skills during Skoltech’s Innovation Workshop
• Skoltech’s Innovation Workshop brings real-world challenges, experience and learning to the institute’s new students