Skoltech is an international graduate research-focused university that was founded by the group of world-renowned scientists in 2011. Skoltech's curriculum focuses on technology and innovation, offering Master's programs in 11 technological disciplines. Students receive rigorous theoretical and practical training, design their own research projects, participate in internships and gain entrepreneurial skills in English. The faculty is comprised of current researchers with international accreditation and achievements.

Tag Archives: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

Smart Fridges and Summer Internships: Skoltech and Intel Russia Complete Joint Program

08/08/2014

Vahe Tahmazyan and teammates Almir Dzhumaev and Alexander Vidiborskyi present their project at Intel

This summer Intel Russia has become the first company to take in a group of Skoltech students for a two-month long internship. Eleven IT and Energy Masters students worked in teams, and helped develop projects of strategic importance for the international giant: prototypes for smart appliances, the internet of things, information security in virtual environments, and the use of Simics as smart grid simulators. The pilot project was held as part of Skoltech’s Industry Immersion Program, whose overall aim is to bring together opportunities and experiences. Under the program, students apply their knowledge and become skilled high-tech professionals, well positioned to launch their careers or start their own business. Companies gain access to the university’s talent pool. Everybody wins.

When the internship kicked off in late June with tasks assigned to teams of students, participants were unsure what to expect. “I was lucky to be part of a team which developed software for an intelligent fridge”, says IT student Vahe Tahmazyan. “My teammates s and I contributed a humble yet significant part to the development of a huge corporation. And the Intel employees trusted our decision-making process. It’s always nice to get a vote of confidence.”

All smiles: from left, Skoltech students Almir Dzhumaev, Alexander Vidiborskyi and Vahe Tahmazyan at Intel Russia.

Maxim Kiselev, Director of Leadership Programs for Skoltech: “I am pleased that our partnership pilot program was that successful. We worked hard on creating a real world experience at Intel. We look forward to a future of cooperation. It actually starts right now.”

As for the company, Igor Kaloshin, General Director for Intel Software notes that ”this was one of those rare cases, when students demonstrate a high technical level, but also excellent business and leadership skills.

“We’ve been holding Intel’s summer internships for 15 years. During that time, 520 students from different parts of Russia undertook training programs. More than 100 graduates have become Intel employees, and the rest gained a unique experience and knowledge working in the IT field.

“Intel is constantly looking for new opportunities to develop this program. Specifically we’re interested in tech entrepreneurship. The cooperation with Skoltech was the first time we managed to combine high quality business leadership with good problem-solving skills. This forms the basis for our collaboration.”

Skoltech student Tatiana Smirnova

Igor Kaloshin, General Director of Intel Software: “This was one of those rare cases, when students demonstrate a high technical level, but also excellent business and leadership skills.”

Maxim Kiselev, Director of Leadership Programs, Skoltech

Team Skoltech at Intel, after two months of an Industry Immersion Program

International Workshop: Design and Manufacturing of Advanced Composite Structures for Automated Production

When: 17-09-2014 10:00

Where: Skolkovo Innovation center, Hypercube

Water on a composite material surface. Image courtesy Nick Cross, Gurit, Flickr

The Skoltech Center for Advanced Structures, Processes and Engineered Materials (ASPEM) organizes an international workshop. Titled “Design and Manufacturing of Advanced Composite Structures for Automated Production”, the workshop will be held from September 17 to 19, 2014 at the Hypercube building, Skolkovo Innovation center.

The purpose of the workshop is to reflect on the state of the art in automated manufacturing of composites, recognize future challenges and opportunities, and identify major directions for the scientific community to move forward in a coherent and expedient manner.

The workshop will focus on essential ingredients of automated manufacturing; namely, hardware, software, and material technologies for production of composite parts and their assemblies. The workshop will help form a road-map for the growth of the ASPEM laboratories, in particular the Automated Manufacturing laboratory.

Participants will include:

• Producers of automated hardware providers

• Software vendors with 3D modeling, simulation and design tools

• Developers of integrated cad, cam software tools

• Material vendors of automated manufacturing

• Technical universities and research institutions

• Enterprises of composite materials and structures

• Leading industrial companies from aerospace, shipbuilding, transportation, construction, and manufacturing industries: United Aviation Corporation, HC Composite, the Shipbuilding and Shiprepair Technology Center, United Rocket and Space Corporation.

* The Skoltech Center for Advanced Structures, Processes and Engineered Materials (ASPEM) pursues a mission to develop a holistic approach to product development via integrated materials, design and manufacturing of advanced composites for Aeronautical, Space, Automotive, and Infrastructure applications. ASPEM is envisioned to have 7 Research Laboratories one of which is the Automated Manufacturing with full laboratory facilities that are to be used for research as well as providing services for industry.

* The Skoltech Centers for Research, Education and Innovation (CREI) are the key building blocks in the effort to develop a world-class graduate university that combines education, research and innovation seamlessly, complements the existing research and educational system in Russia and develops a gateway between Russia and the rest of the world. Importantly, CREIs will build capacity of all kinds at Skoltech, and will be designed to have broad impact on Russia.

Skoltech Workshop Flyer Sept 17-19

Using Patents in and for Research: An Expert’s View

When: 07-08-2014 13:30

Where: Beijing-1 Auditorium, China cluster Skolkovo School of Management

Dr. Zeljko Tekic, guest speaker at the skoltech seminar about patenting

Ever thought how crucial it might be for researchers and entrepreneurs to base their assumptions about patents on complex data?

Whether you replied with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, join us as we host Dr. Zeljko Tekic for a seminar on «COMPLEX PHENOMENA IN INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE LENS OF PATENT DATA».

When: August 7, 2014, 13.30 – 15.00

Where: Beijing-1 Auditorium, China cluster, Skolkovo School of Management

SEMINAR ABSTRACT:

Quantum Patents are legal instruments and powerful business tools. At the same time patents are a unique and valuable source of technical, legal, business and public policy relevant information. The availability of all this information inside patents offers a full spectrum of possibilities for using them in research and practice in key areas of competitive intelligence, innovation and technology management.

The starting point of Dr. Tekic in using patents in research is the study on patent value under the strategy of threatening with litigation. The contribution in this field relates to understanding which patent characteristics make the threat of litigation more acute. It is based on unique empirical evidence about the monetization of 623 US patents. By regressing this exclusive and rare data on different sets of patent value indicators, he was able to outline a profile of patents most likely to accumulate high value under the new strategy.

To support this research, researchers a software tool for competitive intelligence based on patent data, called PSALM. The established tool assembles patent data from publicly available databases, collects and analyses bibliographic parameters of patents but also does text mining. It enables visualizations of high as well as low-dimensional data. F

inally, as a part of his PhD research, Dr. Tekic has used patents and other primary sources of information to track patterns in the development of knowledge and related innovations in landline, mobile and smart phone industries over a long period of time. Based on recognized patterns he has developed a conceptual model – the House of Knowledge, which links concepts of knowledge creation and innovation into a meaningful system and advances our understanding about the knowledge – innovation interface.

In the seminar Dr. Tekic will briefly introduces the above mentioned research and results, offering a starting point for discussion about future plans in research, teaching and practice.

SPEAKER INTRODUCTION: Zeljko Tekic is an assistant professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at University of Novi Sad. He teaches subjects related to entrepreneurship, creative problem solving, innovation and technology management at bachelor and master level. Zeljko earned his PhD in engineering management at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad. He also holds an M.Sc. in Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham and an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Novi Sad. Recently he was a postdoctoral scholar at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering in Stuttgart and at Freie Universität Berlin.

His current research interests include the knowledge-innovation interface, patent valuation and patent data analysis, business intelligence, and youth entrepreneurship. He has published over 30 papers in refereed journals and international conferences. Zeljko is a head of the Faculty’s Center for Youth Entrepreneurship and a member of the University’s Intellectual Property Center. He successfully coordinated FP7 and TEMPUS projects.

* The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, a suburb of Moscow. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, Skoltech educates global leaders in innovation, advances scientific knowledge, and fosters new technologies to address critical issues facing Russia and the world. Applying international research and educational models, the university integrates the best Russian scientific traditions with twenty-first century entrepreneurship and innovation.

Skoltech Space Center at the 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly

When: 02-08-2014 10:00

Where: Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119991

Researchers from Skoltech’s Space Center are slated to take part in the 40th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)

Researchers from Skoltech’s Space Center are slated to take part in the 40th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). On the agenda are sessions, panels, poster presentations and interdisciplinary lectures (with some hectic and valuable networking on the sidelines).

Skoltech researcher Tatiana Podladchikova will present her and Professor Yuri Shprit’s recent findings on space weather, solar activity forecasting and magnetospheric reconstruction, as reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR), Space Physics. Podlachikova: “Our hope is to contribute to improving space weather forecasting as a way to mitigate the hazards of space accidents
– and their consequences. Space weather can specifically cause damage to spacecraft through active events on the Sun. It can also put astronauts and pilots at high altitudes in danger of beign exposed to high levels of radiation. There are also infrastructure concerns especially during solar storms which might damage power systems and radio communications.”

Mikhail Dobynde, a Ph.D. Space student will participate in two poster presentations. One will deal with astronauts protection from cosmic radiation during long term interplanetary flights. “My research is focused on minimising biological damage during long term interplanetary flights”, he explains. The second presentation focuses on measurements of electron spectra inside the magnetosphere. It is the result of collaboration with a group of researchers at the Max Plank Institute for Solar System Research, Germany.

All in all Skoltech Space scientists have co-authored 15 presentations, including three that were commissioned specifically for this assembly. Also, the research center will be represented at the exhibition center, which will operate from August 3 to 9. At the Space Center stand, visitors will be able to get acquainted with the activities of the center, as well as learn about current scientific positions and openings.

The Moscow COSPAR Assembly program will include more than 2,700 plenaries, sessions and lectures and over 1500 poster presentations. It will touch upon a wide array of topics: from big data to biological and medical experiments on board the International Space Station. More than 2,500 scientists and students from more than 60 countries are expected to attend.

* The Space Center is one of 15 CREIs (Center for Research, Education and Innovation) that are the main scientific engines of Skoltech. he Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, a suburb of Moscow. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, Skoltech educates global leaders in innovation, advances scientific knowledge, and fosters new technologies to address critical issues facing Russia and the world. Applying international research and educational models, the university integrates the best Russian scientific traditions with twenty-first century entrepreneurship and innovation.

Welcome Aboard: New Cohort of Students Joining Skoltech

23/07/2014

Selection Weekend: Part of Skoltech’s unique admission process which focuses not only on what applicants already know – but on what they can achieve in the future as agents of knowledge exchange, innovators, company founders and leaders

Design and build electrical circuits in a few minutes. Team up with a group of total strangers to turn a pile of flimsy boxes into a seriously high tower. These were among the challenges that dozens of prospective Skoltech students had to tackle at Selection Weekend – a 72 hours long marathon of exams, challenges, and interviews – which is the final stage in the admission and selection process. For 38 young women and men it was all worthwhile. On the other end of the final 2014 Selection Weekend they were admitted to Skoltech as new students.

The admission and selection process involves more than submitting an application, being interviewed by faculty, or taking math and English exams. It focuses not only on what applicants already know – but on what they can achieve in the future. Skoltech aims to attract, support and nourish outstanding students who have the capacity to become agents of knowledge exchange, researchers, innovators and company founders, who will have impact on Russia and around the world. More than 45% of current Skoltech students are actively involved in a startup company or project.

Selection Weekend 2014: 67 prospective students invited, 38 admitted to Skoltech

The goal is to enroll new students who will follow these trailblazers’ example. In order to admit the right people, Selection weekend involves the entire Skoltech community. Nine professors, two Faculty Founding Fellows, one PhD student and one MIT professor interviewed 60 people in under 24 hours. Two current students led one of the challenges, and the applicants also had a two-hour activity with current Skoltech students. This was held independently by the students, with no faculty or staff present.

The bottom line in numbers: out of 208 prospective students who applied over the last application period (April – June 2014), 67 were invited to Selection Weekend, and 38 were admitted to M.Sc. programs in Energy and IT – an admission rate of 18%. Currently, the total number of Skoltech Masters and Ph.D. students in Energy, IT, Biomed, Space and Manufacturing is 176. More than a third of students are women, and 18% come from an international background, hailing from more than 10 countries. A total of 101 new students are joining Skoltech this year. They’ll be attending the first course of the academic year 2014-2015, Innovation Workshop, today.

Building Bridges to Asia: Energy Systems Researcher Presents ‘Supergrid’ Study in Korea and Mongolia

20/07/2014

ICEE Conference in Jeju, South Korea. Panel session on proposed northeast Asian super-grid

ICEE Conference in Jeju, South Korea. Participants of panel session on proposed northeast Asian super-grid. Top row, second from left: Ksenia Kooshkina, Skoltech Center for Energy Systems

Bridge-building to research and industry communities worldwide is one of Skoltech’s core missions. And one of the most crucial – and pressing – applications of international cooperation is in the field of energy. What way forward should countries take in order to better utilize and share precious resources? Ksenia Kushkina, a project manager with the Skoltech Center for Energy Systems suggests that a proposed ‘North-East Asia Supergrid’, also known as the ‘Asian Energy Ring‘, could offer a good option. In a recent visit to Korea and Mongolia, Kooshkina presented her findings on the region’s energy needs – and how to efficiently address them by sharing and combining energy systems across borders.

The designers of the ‘super-grid’ propose to combine the power outputs of Siberia, the Russian Far East and Asia-Pacific countries such as China, Japan and South Korea. Kushkina participated in a panel session on the topic at the International Conference on Electrical Engineering in Jeju, South Korea last month (see image). The discussion involved, among others, representatives of research institutes, electrical equipment suppliers, energy companies and manufacturing corporations such as KEPCO (Korea), NARI Group (China) and EN+ Group (Russia).

Kushkina: “In Korea, we have presented the preliminary results of research on the effectiveness of interconnecting Russia, China, North Korea, South Korea and Japan. Our study shows that each country’s power systems will benefit. Our conclusions were further supported by the interest in the project from Korean, Chinese and Japanese companies”.

Skoltech research on modeling new electrical connections (such as the ‘Supergrid’ or ‘Asian Energy Ring’) was performed in the framework of the memorandum signed between Skoltech, En + Group and South Korea’s KEPCO during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Korea in November 2013. Now the team is hard at work, preparing further cooperation proposals ahead of a visit in Russia by the President of the Republic of Korea in 2014. Skoltech researchers are slated to present the results of the study at the “Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation” (APEC) summit in November 2014.

“The Beauty of the Moment When You Create Something”. Nobel Laureate talks Inspiration, Education, Science – and Snoopy

15/07/2014

Professor Harry Kroto giving a guest lecture at Skoltech

“That moment when children realize they’ve created something, that moment…”, Nobel laureate Harry Kroto paused mid-sentence, “there really is nothing like it”. There was a brief silence, then the audience realized this was the final statement from Skoltech’s guest lecturer. Then came the applause, the smiles and a procession of audience members. They waited for their turn to chat with the chemist who received a Nobel for the discovery of Buckminsterfullerene, a carbon-made sphere which resembles a soccer ball. Kroto fondly refers to it as Buckyball.

But it’s a different kind of simple natural beauty that energizes and enchants the 74 year old man: young people’s ability to be curious and creative. He now devotes his life to what he calls “the triple educational revolution of the Goo-You-Wiki World”, the title of his guest seminar at Skoltech. Kroto sees a world where Google, YouTube and Wikipedia open up a new range of possibilities for teachers and students.

To illustrate his point about the effectiveness of online education tools such as GEOSET, the Florida State University professor recruited a dream line up. Copernicus, Galileo, Picasso, Darwin and Snoopy were all feted in front of a full house at the Skoltech auditorium.

There were also objects. One of them was a camera rescued from Berlin just before the Second World War. “It used to be hard work to take a picture, you had to understand the mechanism and the chemistry”, said Kroto, “nowadays kids don’t know what’s going in and on a smart phone camera – but they also don’t care. We need to bring back the curiosity.

“The ethical purpose of education involves teaching young people how they can decide for themselves what is true or false. Does preying work as well as your mobile phone?” He smiled, then became serious again. “Penicillin was a miracle but now antibiotics-resistant bacteria pose a grave threat. But how do we convey this intriguing complexity?

Nobel laureate Kroto at the Skoltech seminar

Here is the real question: how can you make a difference as an educator?”

Kroto began addressing these issues when he participated as a guest on TV and radio programs. Then came the Algebra workshops he conducts with six-year-old students. And now it is time, he believes, to embrace distant online learning and tutoring. “By using online tools my team and I have revolutionized resumes and assessments. GEOSET turns it all into an enjoyable experience. After universities and employees see our students’ presentations, they say things like ‘we can see that you can teach’ or ‘we enjoyed your presentation’. We’re providing young students with a technological platform that they can contribute to. We’ve created local branches in countries like Japan, USA, and Brazil, and hopefully Russia. We send links to funding agencies instead of long documents. Nobody reads your reports but they will click on a link to a two minute presentation.”

He took another pause. “This is what I call a revolution”

A member of the audience wanted to know how come Kroto uses humor so often, but fails to mention it directly in his presentation.

“I have three religions”, he replied, “Amnesty international, atheism – and humor. Does that answer your question?”

Harry Kroto: inspired by Snoopy, Copernicus and Darwin

A full house at the Skoltech auditorium. The Harold Kroto guest seminar was organized by Mikhail Myagkov,
Skoltech’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs and International Relations

New International Partnership: Skoltech CREIs and TU Delft sign Cooperation Agreement for Composites Center

10/07/2014

Signing of contracts for partnership of Composites CREI between Skoltech CREIs and Delft TU (from right): Zafer Gürdal, Director of the Skoltech Center for Composites; Mats Nordlund, Skoltech’s Vice-President for Research; Dirk Jan van den Berg, The President of TU Delft

Signing of contracts between Skoltech CREIs and Delft TU (from right): Zafer Gürdal, Director of the Skoltech Center for Composites; Mats Nordlund, Skoltech’s Vice-President for Research; Dirk Jan van den Berg, The President of TU Delft. Photo: Ilan Goren, Skoltech

The Skoltech Center for Composites signed today a partnership agreement with TU Delft, The Netherlands. At a ceremony held at the Skolkovo Innovation Center in Moscow, representatives from the leading Dutch research center and Skoltech agreed to work together on developing the CREI (Center for Research Education and Innovation) which focuses on applicable research into advanced structures and composite materials.

The Composites center aims to conduct basic and applied research into developing advanced structures that are lighter, more durable, more cost-effective, multi-functional, and environmentally friendly. This will be achieved by combining innovation and insight into and developing an integrated multidisciplinary approach for materials, processes and manufacturing techniques. The cooperation with Delft TU will involve scientists, faculty and students from both sides with the aim of conducting joint research projects and sharing facilities.

The Center for Composites has already secured cooperation agreements with two international partners – University of South Carolina, USA and KU Leuven, Belgium – and one Russian partner (The Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics RAS.) It is one of the six Skoltech CREIs which have so far been established.

Zafer Gürdal, the Director of the Skoltech Center for Composites: “The cooperation with TU DELFT offers our CREI an excellent opportunity to grow and floursih. What we plan to do at the Center for Composites wasn’t done in any other place in the world. Usually research centers focus on manufacturing or characterization, but here we’d like to have those put together and cover every relevant challenge – from composite materials design through manufacturing to material afterlife.”

Central to its research mission, Skoltech is founding 15 multidisciplinary Centers for Research, Innovation and Education (CREIs), which will address critical problems facing industry and society, particularly in the Russian context. These centers are key components in building capacity at the university, including world-class research teams, instruments, and facilities. The CREIs are the institute’s major scientific growth engines. The establishment of CREIs is carried out in close cooperation with one (or more) international and Russian academic partners. Skoltech strongly believes that this is the most efficient and fastest way to establish a new world-class graduate research university.

Signing the Composites Center contract between Skoltech CREIs and Delft TU. 10.07.2014. Photo: Ilan Goren, Skoltech