Сколтех — новый технологический университет, созданный в 2011 году в Москве командой российских и зарубежных профессоров с мировым именем. Здесь преподают действующие ученые, студентам дана свобода в выборе дисциплин, обучение включает работу над собственным исследовательским проектом, стажировку в индустрии, предпринимательскую подготовку и постоянное нахождение в международной среде.

Архив метки: students

Ideas to Impact: The internet of lighting

One of the things that make Skoltech unique is the perception of commercialization as an integral part of its core, integrated with the education and the research. Traditionally there’s a gap between the research done in academic labs and the needs of the industry. At Skoltech we work to bridge the gap, and make the students take the market’s needs in account during and even prior to the research process. Читать далее

From NASA to Skoltech and back

Astronaut“I came to Skoltech because I wanted to do cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in the space sector” says Axel Garcia, a student in the Skoltech Space Center. Garcia is an example for the international-innovative-entrepreneurial nature of Skoltech. Originally from Puerto Rico, growing up in Florida, at the age of 23, Garcia already worked at NASA as an electrical engineer, received a Master’s degree from EPF Graduate School of engineering in France, and currently working on his second Master thesis in Skoltech.

Recently Garcia went back to NASA, but not because of his work engagements there. He was one of the selected few to participate in the PoSSUM project, a non-profit suborbital research and education program devoted to the study of our upper atmosphere and the role it plays in the understanding of our global climate, held at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. We asked Garcia to tell us about this unique experience, and its connection to his cooperation aspirations.

Q: how did you manage to get the invitation to the program?

A: I had to apply, to write an essay and do an interview. It was a competitive thing. We have been taking courses remotely, two months before the project.

PoSSUM_graduationQ: Who were your class mates?

A: I was with a group of PhD students, from Egypt, Canada, the US, Portugal, Australia and India. They were all really smart, and they all wanted to become astronauts, so it was like a competition. For me the most amazing thing was to be with all these people. They were all scholars, and they all motivated me to keep into this program.

Q: What did you do during this part of the program?

A: Mostly it was how to perform science in the upper atmosphere. We were trained to go to space in commercial space flights in the future, and so we could be qualified to be the ones manipulating all the equipment and all the cameras, to do this tomography science – measuring clouds, to see how space weather is changing and so on. We had different equipment, we did aerobatic flights, and we experienced micro-gravity.
hypebaric chamberWe also went into a hyperbaric chamber, which simulates the effects of high altitude on the human body. When you go up the pressure increases, and you’re not getting oxygen into your system, so people kind of faint and feel funny. Sometimes they start laughing without a reason. We were trying to see how our body is affected by this, if we can actually go through this hypoxia.
We also had a lot of courses about the atmosphere, about science, how to do analysis in the atmosphere, because we were training to become scientist astronauts, not pilots. In the end, naturally, we had a test.

Q: So you want to be an astronaut?

A: Yes! This program gave me qualification to become a scientist astronaut in the future. Not a NASA astronaut, but a commercial space flight astronaut for either Virgin Galactic or other private companies. My title now is “Astronaut candidate”, because I’m qualified to do the assignments they will need to do in the future in these private flights. I’m not an astronaut yet, I guess I will apply in the future.
But I also have this entrepreneurship spirit, and I want to make collaboration between the two countries. I believe that to achieve higher – to go to the moon again, to go to Mars – we need to collaborate together. It’s really expensive to go to space, so you really need to get organized and divide the work to different people.

Q: How do you connect this with the PoSSUM program?

A: One of the reasons I went there is because of Skoltech. I went to learn there about the equipment and to understand all the training that these astronauts go through, so that the entrepreneurship project I’m working with Prof. Rupert Gerzer now will become possible. We want to bring this mentality and these training activities into Russia.

Q: what can you tell us about this project?

A: I am very interested in human space flights and sub-orbital flights (a flight that you go into space for five minutes), which I think a lot of people are interested in, as tourists. We are trying to commercialize the training, to make a facility that many people can use to train like an astronaut. People who want to do parabolic flights and orbital flights, can use this facility to do their training with us. It will be cheaper for them.

Squat to stay healthy during your long-duration spaceflight

IMG_0940Yuri Gagarin’s first flight to space was a great pride for the Soviet Union. In the days of the cold war between America and the Soviets, the space race was the most prestigious court, on which the two super-powers competed, and any advantage was priceless. But Gagarin’s flight aroused immense interest all over the world. Mankind was fantasizing about travelling up, away and beyond for many centuries, and suddenly it became a reality. Gagarin’s achievement and attractive character captured the imagination of many around the world, even years and decades after he landed.

One of those many, who was influenced by Gagarin, is Punyapat Saksupapchon from Thailand. Punyapat is a second year master’s degree student at Skoltech’s Space Center. “Yuri A. Gagarin is my hero,” she says, ”He inspired me to dream big and work hard to pursue the dream. I have been passionate in science and technology, especially space and astronomy, since I was young.  My ambition to work in the human spaceflight field has driven me to be part of the space Center at Skoltech, Russia. I feel extremely proud to study in the country that successfully sent the first human into space”.

IMG_2485Punyapat is indeed working in the human spaceflight field. She is currently working on her master’s thesis titled “Inverse Dynamics Analysis for Squat Exercise on a Human Centrifuge” at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, Germany. Her thesis advisor is Prof. Dr. med. Rupert Gerzer, Skoltech provost and a professor at the Space Center. Punyapat’s thesis is a part of the ExRoTe study at DLR (Exercise Performance with the Body Mass Accelerated by Rotation Compared with the Acceleration by the Terrestrial Gravitational Field).

Her study aims to investigate, collect data, and develop the biomechanical model and simulation (human body movements) for squat exercise on a short-radius human centrifuge in order to provide safe and effective artificial gravity squat exercise protocols for the future human missions to distant destinations such as the Moon and Mars. “As squat is a resistive exercise that has significant musculoskeletal and cardiovascular benefits when combined with artificial gravity,” she explains, “it is a potential countermeasure to the physiological deconditioning (e.g. bone and muscle loss) that results from long-duration spaceflight”.

Inspired by Gagarin the cosmonaut, a young girl goes from Thailand to Russia to study about space and technology, and continues to work on her thesis for the benefit of manned flights – in Germany. Maybe one day Punyapat will inspire young boys and girls in some other parts of the world to follow her footsteps. Maybe to Mars?

From Kazakhstan to Bucknell University to an internship at Skoltech

BucknellKsenia Tsoktoeva – “I want to make a worthy contribution to the work at the Laboratory of Robotics team and improve my own level in Computer Science”.

Among Bucknell’s student Ksenia Tsoktoeva’s interests, a special place belongs to programming and computer science. So when she thought about her internship, it became apparent that working under the guidance of prof. Dzmitry Tsetserukou at the Skoltech Laboratory of Robotics will be the best choice and the reason to cross the Atlantic again. Ksenia told us about her expectations from the internship and the work on the Reachbot project.

Please tell us about yourself first. Where are you from and how you became a student of the University in US?
- I grew up in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. When I was in 9th grade, I was at physical-mathematical school, and I filed an application to study in Canada. I had a long time desire to try to learn abroad, and my parents supported me in that. Everything went well and from the 10th grade I lived and studied in Vancouver.
Moving to the Canadian school was easy to get used to – in our school, there were many students from Russia, Kazakhstan, Spain, Germany, Mexico and other countries, and in the international collective you adapt quickly. The education system in Canada involves a number of mandatory classes and you also can choose what you like or need. I was good at math and took extra hours of math and physics.
In December 2013 I was able to get to the Top 25% in the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge competition, which was conducted by the Canadian Mathematical Society. A year later with the same result, I participated in the Canadian Senior Mathematics Contest at the University of Waterloo and became the champion among schoolchildren.

You’ve been very successful in high school in Canada. Why didn’t you choose a university in Vancouver for example?
- There are two factors – personal and financial. By the end of school, my family had moved to the United States and in America there’s a much better developed system of scholarship grants. The choice fell on Bucknell University in Lewisburg not only because it is one of the best American universities, but also because, thanks to the success at the Olympics, I was able to get a grant that covers 2/3 of my tuition fees. The important thing was that Bucknell, although prestigious, is very small university and the average teacher or professor there has about nine students. This format and interaction of students and professors suited me more than studying at a large university, where one professor may have a few dozens or even a hundred or two hundred students, whose names he doesn’t even remember.

What do you do at the University?
- Now I’m just trying to understand and decide for myself what areas I am most interested in. The largest number of hours I have now taken is in applied mathematics, statistics, programming, mathematical studies, linear algebra and philosophy.

How did the idea come to Skoltech?
- The idea to try an internship at Skoltech came when I realized that no one in America is waiting especially for a first-year student on serious internship. Spending time on carrying papers from the printer to the shredder is not for me. Four years is a very short time and I want to spend it with the maximum benefit. I never studied computer science and programming before the university. This opportunity presented itself in Bucknell. In the last semester I started studying Python, and in the next one I will begin learning Java and C++. I had programming in mind, and although I understand that as long as I have the level of a beginner programmer, I want to learn more about the development of software, and how it works from the inside. So when I got the answer from Skoltech, that they liked my resume and I was invited for an internship, there was no doubt.

What do you expect from an internship in Skoltech?
- I expect to learn a lot. Once I finish the semester in early May, I’m going to start preparing for the internship based on recommendations of prof. Tsetserukou. I would like to be good intern and make a proper contribution to the work of the team.

What will you do after the internship?
- I hope to continue my education. I will try to expand my field of knowledge. I will get a Ph.D. and, of course, an internship at Skoltech will be another important step towards this goal.

TeterukovDzmitry Tsetserukou, Skoltech professor, head of the Laboratory of Robotics:

– During her internship Kseniya will be working with the Reachbot team. This is a project dedicated to teaching a team of two robots with varying degrees of mobility (SLAM and NAO) to achieve goals and move objects together. The mobile robot SLAM should, scanning the area with help of 3D-scanner, to determine its location and nature of the terrain. Finding an obstacle in the form of steps, for example, which it cannot pass, SLAM will give the command to the NAO humanoid robot with 25 degrees of freedom, to climb the stairs, take the object and give it to the mobile robot.
Ksenia will join to the team and will be responsible for creating communication programs for the two robots. She will also be involved in the development of computer vision software for Reachbot’s objects recognition.
I think that she would like her tasks. The project is complicated, but she is a good student and had promised to work hard.

 

Robotics presentation – more diverse and more practical

Robotics presentation 1As the 3rd term of the academic year came to its end, Skoltech students presented their projects created in the robotics laboratory, at the final seminar “The Age of Intelligent Machines” of the “Dynamic systems and control” course.

Five teams of prof. Dzmitry Tsetserukou’s students showed the originality of solutions and real commercial potential of projects:

  • Industrial Robot – Andrey Rykov and Alexander Anikin.
    Team advisor (TA): Prof. Victor Lempitsky.
  • SwarmAir/Quadcopter control – Ivan Kalinov, Stanislav Kruglik, Daniil Merkulov and Anastasia Vasilenko.
    TA: Evgenii Tsykunov, Yuri Sarkisov, Anastasia and Nikita Rodnichenko.
  • Autonomous Navigaton of Mobile Robot Eugenii Izrailit, Georgii Klushin, Anastasia Stelvaga and Kalan Abe.
    TA: Artem Pavlov and Oksana Gareeva
  • Haptics – Maria Victorova and Pavel Sukhov.
    TA: Dzmitry Tsetserukou.
  • EuroBot - Petrovskii Aleksandr, Yurieva Evgeniya, Shipitko Oleg, Marko Simic, Postnikov Alex and Golovanov Sergey.
    TA: Gonnochenko Aleksey and Artem Pavlov.

The participation in the courses and the competitions is aimed to help students to develop practical skills in robotics for specific tasks. They master the design of mechanical parts, electronics, coding, but not less important is the development of teamwork skill.

Robotics presentation 3Apart from their knowledge, creativity and dedicated staff of teachers and advisors, the students had for their disposal both the new Robotics lab, and a special grant. Prof. Tsetserukou expressed his appreciation and gratitude for that: “I want to thank Igor Seleznev, Director of Research Programs. Thanks to a grant from the Unmanned Vehicle Program, one team was able to develop a guidance system based on monocular visual odometry. The system uses a web camera to determine the position quadrocopters, without the use of GPS-sensor”

At the end of all presentations, the judges announced the winning teams. As in past years, the judges took in consideration ideas and its compliance to applied robotics, as well as how the project relates to the curriculum. Apart from professor Tsetserukou and Lempitsky, the panel of judges included graduates Dmitry Suvorov and Roman Zhukov, who themselves participated in past seminars like this.

Robotics presentation 2“We have seen a growing level of the participants and how they implement their projects”, said Roman Zhukov, “Three years ago, when it was just the beginning, the main part of the course was theory and calculations. On the second workshop, it was already 50:50 modeling and application development. In this current presentation we saw an even larger share of applied results. This shows that students actively use the equipment, and learn to work with it.
An important practical aspect is the teamwork on the project – during preparation for the workshops the teams has all to become a basis of future startups. For example, our technology created for participation in the Eurobot contest, formed the basis of our startup Webot“.

In this spirit, we wish great success to all the teams, hoping they will all manage to commercialize their ideas. Our congratulations go to this year’s winners: team EuroBot with their robots for future Eurobot-2016 contest, and team Autonomous Navigation of Mobile Robot. Well done and good luck!

Robotics presentation 5

Winners: the Autonomous Navigation of Mobile Robot team.

Robotics presentation 4

Winners: the EuroBot team.

More Competitive, More Diverse, More Innovative: Skoltech rings in fourth Academic Year

Prof Ed Crawley ringing the bell as Skoltech marks the opening of acaemic year - the fourth in the innovation focused university's history.

Prof Ed Crawley ringing the bell as Skoltech marks the opening of acaemic year – the fourth in the innovation focused university’s history (click on image to enlarge)

“We are dreaming big”, said Skoltech provost Keith Stevenson to a crowd of visibly excited students. “Which is why you will be tested tremendously and continuously.” Gathered for the opening of the academic year ceremony, and the launch of their innovation-focused program at Skoltech, the students listened, and smiled, and applauded.

‘Knowledge Day’ – or День Знаний in Russian – is a special day in Russia. All across the vast country, students and professors celebrate the new school year. Following local tradition, Skoltech president Ed Crawley rang a bell. It was the fourth time that the MIT professor led the ceremony, and the first time he was presiding over the festivities at Skoltech’s new building. 123 postgrads from 25 countries have begun their journey at Skoltech, the biggest and most diverse cohort of students in the university’s short history .

Crawley mentioned in his address the increasing competition between prospective students for spots with the Moscow based innovation-focused university. “This was the most competitive selection process we ever had”, he said.

“We received over ten applications for each position. Now we can focus again on our main responsibility: to learn and teach and discover.”

He reflected on the “enormous growth” of the institution in a relatively short space of time: The first bell-ringing ceremony was held at MIT in front of the inaugural intake of 20 or so students and a handful of professors. Two or three years from now, he said, the university will boast more than 100 professors, and about 600 students working and studying in state of the art labs and facilities in Skoltech’s new building.

Sergey Muratov, a master’s student with Skoltech’s interdisciplinary IT program, told the audience “that my main advice is to engage in as little self-questioning as possible – and start acting. You, the new students, are intelligent. You can make a change. Don’t waste your most productive years on doubts.”

Text: David Nowak and Ilan Goren

Photos: Vitaly Shustikov and Vlada Kuligina

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