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: Skoltech

When Art Meets Science: Students Final Projects Connect Lab with City

03/06/2014

Robots which tackle social problems. People who deal with parking troubles. And students who dig out of the Moscow ground a device which transmits existential questions. What does all that have to do with art and science? Everything, if you ask Stass Shpanin and his students. Here are their final projects.

Art and Science course. Photo Stass Shpanin

Science, Technology & Art is a survey course on the scientific and artistic collaborations of the last thirty years. Skoltech students of the Master of Science program have studied the most important intersections between science and art and the different cultural phenomena created

As a practical part of the course, students had created their own cultural and social projects where they have implemented their expertise in technology and science. Those projects range from social activism project dealing with hot topics of parking in Moscow, a survey of Moscovites who were asked to answer two questions (“to be or not to be?” and “are you happy?”) and all the way to robotics that illustrate social problems and electronic systems that connect several working environments.

Here are the 6 projects presented at the Hypercube to professors, guests and journalists.

Art and Science: Anna Dubovik presenting her final project “Life Clock”

Art and Science: Elvira Burganova and Dmitry Smirnov present 'Connected' - an installation which captures the intensity of students’ talking, shouting (or singing), and translates it into water disturbances (like bubbles) in tubes located at an adjacent building. The purpose is to strengthen trust between members of the Skoltech community

Elvira Burganova and Dmitry Smirnov present ‘Connected’ – an installation which captures the intensity of students’ talking, shouting (or singing), and translates it into water disturbances (like bubbles) in tubes located at an adjacent building. The purpose is to strengthen trust between members of the Skoltech community

Aidana Nurzhanova, Roman Prilepskiy and Sergei Ivanov present ‘Web Data News’ an analysis of how news spread through social networks.

Vladimir Zhuikov presents “Stand & Stare”: a specialized camera installed a few centimeters above a painting or picture analyzes a viewer’s eyes movements. Pretty obvious when it comes to a portrait, but what happens when someone looks at an abstract work by Jackson Pollock? (with Irina Zhelavskaya, Oleg Urzhumtsev, Bogdan Uzbekov)

Nikolay Shuyskiy (right) and Nikita Rodichenko: “Moscow Demands”. This device was allegedly dug out of the Moscow ground. The students plans to install terminals like this one around the city and create a feedback channel

Teacher Stass Shpanin: “In the 21 century a lot of artwork is made not in the studio but in a lab where artists and scientists work together, defining and redefining our culture through technology. “

* 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, advance scientific knowledge, and foster 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.

Professor Natalia Berloff on the cover of Expert Magazine

01/06/2014

This makes a good weekend read. It also makes us proud.

Professor Natalia Berloff, Skoltech’s dean of faculty is featured on the cover of Expert Magazine.

Prof Natalia Berloff, Skoltech’s Dean of Faculty on the cover of Expert magazine

In the interview, professor Berloff provides an overview of her research on vortex turbulences. Along with her colleagues from Cambridge, the Russian born researcher created a new quantum particle called polariton and controlled hundreds of twister-like vortexes, a technology which could be used to measure movements to astonishing precision. The article also highlights the fact that the Russian born researcher was the first ever woman to become a Cambridge Professor of Applied Mathematics.

For someone who unleashed quantum tornadoes and then taught them how to dance across a fluid trapped on a semiconductor chip, Professor Berloff comes across in the article as quite a composed and calm person (just like she is in real life.) Read it here (in Russian)

June 5: Skoltech’s 1st End of Year Party and Book Presentation: Lonely Ideas – Can Russia Compete?

30/05/2014

Even smart tech grads might feel like dancing. Image courtesy of http://vegashipster.blogspot.ru/2012_07_01_archive.html

Even smart tech grads might feel like dancing after a year of intense studies. Image courtesy of http://vegashipster.blogspot.ru/2012_07_01_archive.html

Common sense might expect that events organized by the students’ office would either mean that everyone present must delve into deep subject matter or dance the Macarena. There’s no middle road. Right? Wrong. Here’s one get together that could provide two experiences almost at the same time – the deep reflection and the frivolous celebration.

Skoltech’s 1st ever End of Year Party

and

Book Presentation: Lonely Ideas – Can Russia Compete?

First, presenting our guest Speaker. Loren Graham is a Professor Emeritus of the History of Science in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT. On June 5 at Digital October Skoltech’s public lecture will feature prof. Graham and his recent book, Lonely Ideas: Can Russia Compete?
In Lonely Ideas, Loren Graham investigates Russia’s long history of technological invention followed by failure to commercialize and implement.

For three centuries, Graham shows, Russia has been adept at developing technical ideas but abysmal at benefiting from them. But he points to new connections between Western companies and Russian researchers, new research institutions, a national focus on nanotechnology, and the establishment of Skoltech and Skolkovo, a new technology city. Today, he argues, Russia has the best chance in its history to break its pattern of technological failure.

So this is the thoughtful part of the evening. And now to something less official:

Skoltech students will be glad to share with anyone attending the event at Digital October their experiences during the school’s first academic year. Expect grads to chat about the cross disciplinary studies and training at Skoltech, their early stage start-up projects or hopes for employment. Then again, since there will be free snacks, free drinks and free spirits, spontaneous dancing might erupt.

http://skoltech.timepad.ru/event/125785/#eventregisterform

12 Pictures That Prove an Engineering Education Conference in Moscow was Fascinating and Fun

28/05/2014

On a gray summer morning in Moscow, Skoltech’s president Edward Crawley set out to solve a conundrum: how to get the attention of a roomful of jet-lagged education experts.

Gathered around a massive round table, professors and deans from Sweden to Siberia were in town for an annual conference on project-oriented engineering education. Some blinked in the glaring auditorium spotlights. Others busied themselves with unanswered emails. Crawley took a breath.

Then he said: “Here’s what we need to do. We need to relate to the way young brains and established industries work”. Some in the audience let go of their smartphones. Others raised their heads and tuned in.

At the CDIO conference in Moscow. Photo: Ilan Goren

“There’s a real advantage in teaching young students within context. This is not about equations – this is about customers’ needs and users’ needs and finding solutions. Real solutions” By now everyone in the room was wide awake. “Where the information will be used, how the knowledge and skills will be applied – that’s what CDIO is about.”

CDIO stands for Conceiving – Designing – Implementing – Operating. It provides an engineering context for educational institutes which send graduates out to the real world, where a young professional cannot settle for knowing the fundamentals but must also understand manufacturing, get design, possess a multidisciplinary perspective. Communication skills and ethical standards are also part of the package.

Crawley envisioned CDIO in the 1990s as a response to industry leaders’ repeated complaints about the quality of tech and engineering students. Now the framework is a worldwide phenomenon, implemented in 111 universities and institutes across five continents – and in Skoltech.

Co-speakers at the conference were Alexander Povalko, the Russian deputy Minister of Education and Science; Johan Malmqvist of Chalmers University; Alexander Chuchalin from Tomsk Polytechnic; and Mikhail Mygakov and Mats Hanson of Skoltech. Judging by the pictures we took they had a reasonably good time at that conference hall.

The 4th Skoltech Innovation Program Conference

When: 03-06-2014

Bridge the gap between lab and market, laptop and the real world. That’s what innovation is essentially about. That’s what Skoltech’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is about. And that’s what 6 projects supported by the center have to achieve.

Innovation can be found in the most unexpected places. Image courtesy Dan Mason, flickr

On June 3rd half a dozen teams will present their progress so far and hear expert advice on the way forward. Should these young researchers change course or push ahead in the current direction?

The 4th Innovation Program Conference is due to coincide with the Startup Village events, and take place on June 3, from 10:00 to 17:30, inside the Skoltech tent.

Research teams will present their projects and receive feedback on their progress since last autumn, when they were awarded a year of funding by the Skoltech Innovation Program (SIP). Projects will be assessed by their potential to translate research into market and to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Russia.

While each project is unique in its focus, all projects share a general mission of using proven scientific findings to create practical real-world applications.

Participation in the conference is open to anyone sharing the center’s enthusiasm for early stage innovative projects and a willingness to support them. The Program aims to develop a common methodology and a series of novel approaches to organizing research and development in universities and research institutes. This year’s gathering is organized with support from the Skolkovo Foundation and API Moscow, Moscow Innovation Development Center.

ABOUT the SIP

The SIP provides critical support for participating teams. We help establish proof of concept and assist advancing technology towards commercialization, including pre-start up identification of high potential market opportunities, intellectual property management, and, if appropriate, team development. The Program helps reduce two major types of risk – technical and marketing, ensuring that the invention meets the market’s tech requirements and finds its niche. Thus, SIP promotes applied research and motivates research teams to take risk and be entrepreneurial.

The Program is developed in collaboration with the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Deshpande Center and MIT have an unparalleled track record of success in tech commercialization. Projects are selected in

the following areas: IT, Energy, Biomedicine, Space, and Peaceful Nuclear Technologies. Successful outcomes for each participating research team will be licensing its technology to industry. Skoltech provides support and assistance to the participants until they reach this result.

Secrets of Sperm Swimming Upstream Unveiled by Skoltech Researcher

27/05/2014

Vasily Kantsler had his spermatozoid eureka moment when a bored friend dropped by for an unexpected visit at his lab. Now the Skoltech researcher publishes his surprising findings in the journal eLife. His experiments could help explain what makes sperm so good at swimming upstream to reach the egg – and might help men and women who have problems conceiving

Image courtesy fatmanwalking, flickr

”It was the weekend and a friend of mine was visiting the lab. She was bored, and asked to see something exciting through the microscope”, reminisces the 34 years old Russian born biophysicist, “so I had to improvise. The only thing available at the lab was a sperm sample.”

Then things got interesting. Without any change of temperature or the use of chemicals, the spermatozoids swam upstream inside a designated channel. It was as if the cells voluntarily performed this incredible athletic feat, which mystified and fascinated researchers for centuries.

“That got me thinking.” Says Kantsler, “and I came up with an intuitive explanation. Swimming against the flow and close to the surface, where the current is relatively weak, the head of the cell feels a weaker force than the tip of the tale – that’s the force that aligns the cell against the current. It seemed like a mechanical phenomenon more than a biological one.”

The next challenge was to translate his hypothesis into experiments. Kantsler aimed at shedding light on the mechanism that causes sperm to navigate successfully in the dark Fallopian tube, swim a distance that is approximately one thousand times their own length and travel across a viscous terrain. Hundreds of millions of cells begin the journey, but only a few resilient swimmers reach their final destination, the egg. It is a journey against the odds – and the currents.

Vasily Kantsler

Kantsler, who is currently on a yearlong Faculty Development Program with the MIT-Skoltech initiative in Cambridge, Massachusetts, teamed up with Jorn Dunkel, an assistant professor of physical applied mathematics at MIT; Raymond Goldstein, the Schlumberger Professor of Complex Physical Systems at the University of Cambridge; and Martyn Blayney, chief embryologist at the Bourn Hall Clinic in the UK.

In a bid to understand what the cells are capable of, the researchers built a series of artificial m channels of different sizes and shapes, into which they inserted the sperm. First using bull sperm, then human, they were able to modify the flow of fluid through the tubes and investigate how the cells responded to different current speeds.

They discovered that at certain flow speeds, the sperm cells were able to swim very efficiently upstream. “If the flow is too strong the cells will be washed away, if it’s too slow the mechanical effect would not be strong enough,” says Kantsler, “we have also realized that the sperm tail is asymmetrical, which causes additional transversal migration.”

Trajectory of sperm cell swimming upstream combined over several images. Image courtesy of the researcher

This explains why the sperm were not swimming in a straight line upstream, but in a spiraling motion in a tube. The researchers also think that their experiments explain how sperm cells can travel such long distances before they get very close to the egg and start detecting chemical signals in the Fallopian tube. “We’re all very excited about it. There’s always a flow – this is how the cells know where to travel to. We have possibly explained a major mechanism.”

Kantsler believes the team’s findings might provide ideas for future treatments for both men and women, in order to help childless people conceive more easily. “It could help both men who have too little cells or women who don’t have enough fluids. Usually the problem is a combination of both.”

Another possibility is that, since we found a way to control sperm cells, we can now try to separate cells and select them according to their swimming abilities. We can separate different cells, analyze the DNA and see if the genetic makeup is related to sperm motility and movement skills.”

What will you show a friend next time they drop by for an unexpected visit?

“Possibly a device called spermatron.” He smiles “It’s where we bring cells together and increase concentration to test the collective behaviors and the patterns forming. It’s quite fascinating.”

We think so, too.

May 29: Human Spaceflight – Skolkovo Spaceman Charts the Next Stage

23/05/2014

Some people describe Sergey Zhukov as a test cosmonaut. Others relate to him as a leading expert on space exploration. Some even call him the Skolkovo Spaceman.

The Executive Director of the Space Technologies and Telecoms Cluster will be our guest speaker at professor Golkar’s class on Thursday, May 29. He will present his view on new approaches and challenges related to Human Spaceflight.

May 29th, 1.30-3pm

Hypercube 3rd floor

Please register by email:

Sergey Zhukov, test cosmonaut, skolkovo space director and guest speaker

SPEAKER INTRODUCTION

Sergey Zhukov was born on the 8th of September 1956 in Dzhezkazgan (Kazakhskaya SSR).

He holds a PhD in Technical Sciences, research- cosmonaut, member of the Russian Academy of cosmonautics. Sergey worked in Rocket and Space Corporation “Energia”, was in charge of setting experiments in astrophysics and radio-biology on board of “Mir” orbital station, instructed cosmonauts. In 1991–1993 he was deputy Leader of the Work Group in Cosmonautics with the Government and Supreme Council of Russia.

In 1996 under the RSA auspices Sergey Zhukov founded and chaired CJSC “Russian Technology Transfer Center” on the basis of which the Industrial Center on Patent-Licensing Work and Commercialization of the Research and Development Results was established in 2000. Sergey participated in the founding of Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Russian Technologies” in 1997 and of the space-launch complex “Vostochnyy” in 2007, managed the project development of the Inter-industry innovation center with the defense industry complex in 2007-2010.

Sergey Zhukov is President of the public association “Moscow Space Club”, expert of the Federation Council, author of verse collections and scientific articles. Since 2003 he is a member of the cosmonaut corps of Russia. He is currently Executive Director of the Space Technologies and Communications Cluster of Skolkovo.

Seminar May 28: Composite Materials from Nano to Macro

When: 28-05-2014

Every discussion about composite materials seems to mention their unusual strength, resilience or elasticity. They are used to coat shoes, make jets stronger and cars safer and are recognized in a wide range of industries – from civil engineering, oil and gas to aerospace. But what’s next? Our guest speaker Prof. Gilles Lubineau believes he can see the path ahead.

In his seminar he will focus on the need to further develop multi-functionality and multi-physics approaches to composite materials. Study cases will be presented to illustrate, in very practical situations, the need for better composite based engineering from the material design to the field operations.

May 28, 2014 13.30 – 15.00 Sao-Paolo Auditorium, Brazil cluster Skolkovo School of Management

Seminar Title: «MULTI-FUNCTIONALITY AND MULTI-PHYSICS FOR COMPOSITES ENGINEERING: SOME APPLICATIONS FROM NANO TO MACRO»

Composites offer tremendous durability and strength, and allow the design of complex geometric forms and the engineering of bespoke materials. Image courtesy Nick Cross / Gurit, Flickr.

ABSTRACT:

Composite materials are now recognized in a wide range of industries as viable candidates when excellent mechanical properties are required. Yet, increasing the reliance on composite parts in the design and meeting future challenges for cost efficiency and reduced environmental impact will require better mastery of the way we design with these materials.

Some key challenges have to be solved to improve composite based design. Multi-functionality is important to ensure integration. Aging, especially under multi-physics loading starts to be critical in any industry, from civil engineering, oil and gas industry to aerospace. Advanced structural health monitoring is also needed to push the design limits so that the designer has continuous feedback about how the structure evolves with time.

This talk will give a general overview of my research activities in these different areas, and will highlight the need for having a highly multidisciplinary and across-the-board team to tackle such complex issues. Among the topics presented are:

• Multifunctional composite materials. Development and optimization of hierarchical composites for tailored mechanical/electrical/thermal properties.

• Integrity/Durability of composite materials and structures.

• Inverse problems for identification of constitutive parameters and/or monitoring.

• Multi-scale coupling techniques for objective prediction of failure.

Study cases will be presented to illustrate, in very practical situations, the needs for better composite based engineering from the material design to the field operations.

Professor Gilles Lubineau, the Skoltech seminar guest speaker May 28

SPEAKER INTRODUCTION:

Prof. Gilles Lubineau is the principal investigator for COHMAS (COmposite and Heterogeneous Materials Analysis and Simulation), an integrated environment for composite engineering that he created in 2009 when joining KAUST as an Associate Professor.

Current research interests include: short and/or long-term integrity of composite materials and structures, inverse problems for the identification of constitutive parameters, multi-scale coupling technique, multifunctional materials and modeling.

Before joining KAUST, Prof. Lubineau was a faculty member at the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan, and a non-resident faculty member at the École Polytechnique, France. He also served as a visiting researcher at UC-Berkeley. Prof. Lubineau earned a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (ENS-Cachan), France. In 2004, he received the Daniel Valentin Award for best innovative works related to the field of composite materials. Prof. Lubineau was ranked 1st at the agrégation in theoretical mechanics and was granted his research habilitation in Mechanics in 2008. He is a member of various Editorial boards (including the International Journal of Damage Mechanics).