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.
An engineering hackathon titled “Girls vs. Boys” will be held by Skoltech students on December 6, 2014
If you’re an engineering student (girl or boy) here is one event you do not want to miss:
Girls vs. Boys Hackathon.
The competition, scheduled for December 6, will focus on engineering (not coding) challenges. The tasks will test participants’ engineering creativity and problem solving skills within a limited time frame.
And here is the twist, devised by the organizers, who are all Skoltech students: teams made of three female participants will face off teams consisting of three male contestants. Hence, girls vs. boys.
Current and prospective students are welcome to join the hackfest. Organizers will be happy to help assemble teams for those who have none. Deadline for registration is November 10. For more info and registration:
* 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.
Brain Computer Interface. Image courtesy of Ars Electronica, Flickr
We are pleased to invite you to the Skoltech Colloquium. And this time Skoltech Professor Philipp Khaitovich takes you on a journey down the rabbit hole of the human brain’s evolution.
When: November 6, 4 pm
What: Molecular features of human evolution
Where: Hypercube, 4th floorHuman evolution has resulted in a species that possesses an apparently unique set of phenotypic capabilities. In our laboratory, we search for molecular features specific to humans, through integrative analysis of genetic, transcriptomic and metabolomic data measured in modern and archaic humans, as well as closely related mammalian species: chimpanzees, macaques and mice. Here, I will share recent insights into uniquely human features of brain development and brain organization, as well as a hidden link between brain and muscle evolution.
Speaker: Professor Philipp Khaitovich, born in Moscow, Russia in 1973. Completed undergraduate studies at Moscow State University in 1995 and PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1999. From 2000 till 2006, worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology at the department of Evolutionary Genetics headed by Prof. Svante Pääbo. In September 2006, he took a faculty position at the Institute for Computational Biology jointly established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Society in Shanghai, China and in 2012 became an institute director. In 2014, Philipp joined Skoltech as a professor ate the Bio Medicine initiative.
We look forward to seeing you.
* 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.
If you like to participate and for further information or questions, please Liliya Abaimova We look forward to seeing you.
Concurrent design and simultaneous engineering processes are Karfidov Lab’s way to rapidly move from mind to model to market
Clay, fire and a soldering iron are not the images young high tech entrepreneurs usually like to conjure up.
But some innovators vow not to follow the heard. Karfidov Lab, co-founded by Skoltech student Dmitry Vasilev, aims to break away from the pack and offer new design and engineering thinking, with a focus on rapid and parallel processes. The company pledges to have a real impact on Russian economy.
Hence the references to the fast fusion of basic elements which create something smart, spectacular – and fast. The end result could be the winter Olympics’ torch (the company provided the mathematical model at the basis of the sleek and somewhat maligned apparatus), a device that provides support for damaged joints or a blast furnace.
Karfidov Lab, the company you started with Alexei Karfidov, wants to help launch products faster. Why is it so important?
Vasilev: “Think of a new product developed by a startup. Time-to-market may take years. As a result, when the device is launched it will already have been out-of-date. Bureaucracy, and even the fear of it, kill so many good ideas. There is no way you would ever actually produce something if you need to go through four security guards on your way to a meeting with an investor or government official. We should remove the barriers for innovation. Language barriers also don’t help. We have to re-engineer the production chain, and we need to break stereotypes about Russia. That, in a nutshell is the ‘why’ part.
Dmitry Vasilev, Karfdiov Lab co-founder and final year MSc student at Skoltech: “Bureaucracy kills so many good ideas. We take down barriers and speed up processes so products reach the market much faster”.
And the how? Professor Maria Yang of MIT claims that “one of the most important things about design especially at its earliest stages is that it’s iterative.” Do you agree?
Our lab’s goal is to help companies develop everything they need to go out there with a product. We provide engineering analysis of the structural elements of a product, early prototyping, and even rapid manufacturing of the actual product. We have a rapid modeling service which enables customers to have an accurate 3D model in 48 hours. So it will take no more than two days from the moment the sketch appears on a napkin and the time you can hold it in your hands. And when you have a 3D model, manufacturing a first prototype from ABS, or any other plastic – or even metal – is relatively easy.
You can see in our lab someone with a scalpel and clay, absorbed in the ergonomics of a prototype. Next to him an engineering designer fiddles with electronic gadgets and a soldering iron. Teams work simultaneously, concurrently with as many iterations as needed for realization. This is also part of the Skoltech and MIT ethos. This is how we operate at Karfidov Lab.
We didn’t raise money the usual way. We started with the first customer and then built on this. We’re supported by MISIS (National University of Science and Technology) and the Skolkovo Foundation, so the company is a joint venture. So we have office space, free software and tax exemptions. As for the talent part, we can find it at Skoltech, which is literally just around the corner from us. Moreover, as a Skoltech student I had an opportunity to get acquainted with the operating principles of engineering companies and laboratories on the US East Coast, to gain knowledge of the MIT way of doing things. Americans excel at rapid concurrent design and production even of very small quantities or highly specific components. While you wait for something to be delivered you continue designing and engineering. It’s time we brought such quality to Russia, too.
The Sochi Winter Olympics torch
Ok. We must ask this: how come the torch you helped design reportedly went out a few times during its journey to Sochi?
“When we actually designed it, we came up with something as cool as neodymium magnets instead of bolts and nuts to connect the two halves of the torch. In terms of engineering it didn’t perform too badly”, he smiles.
* Karfidov Lab Ltd. provides a complete range of engineering and design services: Idea – design –modeling – calculation – engineering documentation – product. www.karfidovlab.ru
* 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.
If you like to participate and for further information or questions, please Liliya Abaimova We look forward to seeing you.
On November 10, Skoltech holds its Open Doors event for prospective masters and doctoral students.
Location: Digital October Center, Moscow.
Time: 18:00 -21:00.
On the agenda: short talks by the the sharpest scientific minds around, meetup with current students, full details about our fellowship programs, info on research centers, project presentations, and how to start a startup.
At dawn, the muddy field between the tiny villages of Dureevskaya and Fedeevskaya some 200 km south east of Moscow, was far from welcoming. Little frozen pools and slushy patches greeted Italian-born Skoltech professor Alessandro Golkar, his research assistants and 18 Skoltech space students. The sky showered the group with frozen rain and wet snow. The half awake scientists traveled for 6 hours from the Russian capital to this particular spot. Here, aerospace authorities and nature converged to create an opportunity. Here they will be allowed to conduct an experiment that will render all air traffic in the area impossible. Here they hoped that their sophisticated engineering creations would not end up in a lake or a river. Their goal: launch stratospheric balloons carrying experiments and HD cameras, reach the edge of space and safely collect the platforms after they land back on Earth.
This could also be an account of numbers, telemetry and data.
Of careful engineering, design and construction and a once in a lifetime educational experience.
4 stratospheric balloons filled with lighter-than-air helium were launched. One of the balloons reached an altitude of 33 km. Some traveled for more than 2 hours and over a distance of 200 km. Then, as temperature fell to -50°C and pressure reached below 0.1 atmosphere, the balloons diameter expanded to over 9 meters. They could no longer carry their payloads. The bloated white creatures imploded and began falling back to the ground.
Then again, there is the tale of the search and rescue operation.
The platforms, a final project for the Space Systems Engineering course, plummeted down to Earth. Payloads and experiments such a lithium-ion battery, a composite material, a small satellite reactor, and a stabilizer hurtled towards Earth. A small wooden fox, the Skoltech Space lab newly anointed mascot, also joined the plunge. Their descent was slowed by parachutes. And then the nerve wrecking and gratifying mission of locating the precious experiments before the woods get too dark and impassable. A blue globe, white pyramid and green box have been recovered within 24 hours. The fourth component of the university’s space mission was even more stubborn.
“If you had told me three years ago that I’d be wading through icy puddles in Russia in search of a box full of instruments that we launched to space I’d have probably said that you’re joking”, Golkar, who recently won a prestigious international award and had studied at MIT before relocating to Moscow, grinned. “Yet this is very serious work. And fun.”
But perhaps images are best suited to tell the story of this journey.
Photographer Alexei Kalabin took photos throughout a night and a day, from launch through search to recovery. Here is the story of the first Skoltech Space Race.
Carbon nanotubes being spun to form a yarn. Image courtesy of CSIRO ScienceImage and WIkipedia
Skoltech would like to invite you to the next Solid State Physics seminar, which will take place on29 October, Wednesday at 16:30 in lecture hall Beijing-2, Moscow School of Management
Title: Single-walled carbon nanotubes: from synthesis to applications
Round table discussion at the Open Innovations Forum on ‘Models of disruption in education’. Skoltech president Edward Crawley: “Education is undergoing a dynamic change: new players, technologies, markets, and a greater access to and excess of information.”
Walking the full length of Moscow’s giant Technopolis – “tech city” – could be safely described as mission almost impossible.
Faced with the prospect of visitors and participants becoming exhausted after perambulating through the massive conference center, the organizers of Open Innovations Forum and Expo came up with a clean and quiet solution: electric and kick scooters.
The trendy vehicles, called Самокат (samokat) in Russian, made all the difference – but only for a lucky few commuters.
And still, the on-foot majority seemingly accepted that the price for networking should be trekking.
Photos: Anastasia Belyakova and Vitaly Shustikov
The vehicle of choice at Open Innovations 2014. The Forum and Expo focused, among other issues, on emerging energy technologies.
And when the pedestrian crowd’s hum, drone and buzz subsided, as everyone settled into their seats, it was serious discussion time. Emerging technologies, impactful innovation and global collaboration were all on the agenda, with the Skoltech community contributing its part to the ongoing conversation on trends in tech and science.
To sum up our leadership, professors and students’ experience at Open Innovations 2014 we put together a photo essay (see below). See you next year at a round-table discussion, Q & A session or at the Skoltech booth, located right at the center of the main hall. No need to ride a samokat to get to us.
Game of Drones: Skoltech students Nikita Rodichenko and Anastasia Urasheva presented their fleet of civilian drones to visitors at the Skoltech booth.
Skoltech VP for Institutional and Resource Development, Alexei Sitnikov: “Universities are very slow to change – as they think they are smart and know what is best.”
Alexey Ponomarev, Skoltech Vice President for Industrial Cooperation and Public Programs, and Prof. Janusz Bialek, Director of the Skoltech Center for Energy Systems spoke at the Green Technologies Track’s panel discussion “Smart Energy”.
All dressed up and ready for innovation. At the OI Expo 2014.
The next generation examining next generation technology.
Prof. Keith Stevenson, Director of the Skoltech Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage spoke at the Transport and Infrastructure Track’s panel Discussion.
Prof. Maxim Kiselev, Director of Leadership Programs, Skoltech (left) moderated the Enterprises Track’s panel discussion “How Good Leaders Foster Healthy Disruption”.
Biomed boys: Skoltech PhD biomedicine students Alexander Tyshkovskiy and Alexander Martynov tutored schoolchildren and met with senior politicians at the Open Innovations 2014 expo.
Guest of honor: Russia’s PM Dmitry Medvedev as seen on a screen outside the main hall.
And in the end.. Open Innovations 2014.
* 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.
If you like to participate and for further information or questions, please Liliya Abaimova We look forward to seeing you.
tery materials with X-ray diffraction. Image coutreys of Argonne National Laboratory, Flickr
A Workshop on Advanced Manufacturing Technologies in the framework of the National Technology Initiative will be held at Skoltech on October 22, 2014.
The get together has several goals:
– Assess the situation in Russia and abroad
– Submit proposals for state support
– Receive feedback and collect comments from experts regarding the formulation of proposals for government policies on the development of advanced manufacturing technologies.
Skoltech is one of the key organizations supporting the National Technology Initiative. The university acts as an “open expert platform”, whose main aim is to bring together experts from industry, federal agencies, as well as Russian and international academic professionals.
State Organisations (Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of telecom and mass communication, Russian technology agency)
Technological Platforms (“Lightweight and reliable constructions”, “Modeling and operation of high-technology systems”, “National Software Platform”)
Development Institutes and Funds (Skolkovo Foundation, Russian Venture company, Rosnano, Russian scientific fund, Russian fund for technological development, Center for Strategic Research “North-West” Foundation.
International Experts
Main Speakers:
– Ponomarev Alexey, Vice president for industrial cooperation and public programs, Skoltech
– Dezhina Irina, Head of Group for science and industrial policy, Skoltech
– Belov Mikhail, Deputy director, IBS
– Efimov Albert, Head of Skolkovo Robotics Center
– Psakhie Sergey, Director of Institute of Continuum Mechanics SD RAS, Adjunct-professor of Skoltech
– Gurdal Zafer, Director of CREI “Advanced structures, processes and engineered materials”, Skoltech
– Chuiko Grigoriy, CEO of LLC “Voronezshselmash”
If you like to participate and for further information or questions, please Liliya Abaimova We look forward to seeing you.
