High standard of education

On 8 February, 2019, at the Government House of the Moscow Region, Governor of the Moscow Region Andrey Vorobyov, Rector of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University Anatoly Aleksandrov and Director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research Victor Matveev signed an agreement, under which Dubna School of Engineering (DSE) was opened on the basis of the Dubna State University. It was established with the aim of training engineering personnel for major scientific projects in the field of fundamental physics, including the NICA megascience project.

The first enrollment took place in 2019. After a competitive selection, it included university students from engineering ("Design and technology of e-tools", "Electronics and automation of physical facilities", "Aircraft engineering", "Electric power industry and electrical engineering", "Physics") and IT areas. Thus, additional subjects were added to the curriculum. But the most important thing is the opportunity to participate in real projects, to turn theoretical knowledge into skills, to see one's place in already working teams.

During the three years of this new educational project, students of the School have participated in conferences, have met with famous scientists, including the FLNR Scientific Leader Academician Yu. Oganessian, have studied at the sites of other universities, have visited scientific and industrial organizations. Last year, supported by JINR, a new educational laboratory for training specialists in the field of electronics and microprocessor technology was opened at the Dubna State University, equipped with advanced instrumentation, computers with professional software and an assembly workshop. The laboratory, in fact, is the first stage for students of DSE, specializing in this area. The next step in the practical training of these students will be a specialized engineering workshop at the JINR University Centre.

This year, there was a defense of final research papers of students of the first enrollment. And on 29 June, a solemn ceremony was held: six graduate students of the School V.Aleksandrov, G.Algashov, P.Vasilevsky, R.Zhikharev, I.Pudin, A.Sabitov defended their graduation theses with honors and were awarded diplomas and graduation certificates from the hands of Academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov and Yuri Oganessian, one of the authors of the idea of establishing this School.

The editors asked the Vice-rector for educational and methodological work of the University Andrey Denikin to tell about the results of these years:

"The idea of establishing School of Engineering at the Dubna University was not born at all suddenly, but it was the result of numerous meetings with the Directorate and staff of the JINR laboratories, where we jointly tried to answer the question: "What kind of specialists does JINR need?". It has turned out that the answer is far from being obvious, since the level of "fine tuning" of the future JINR specialist is very high and its content depends on the tasks of the sector and even the group. It is no secret that the education system is very inert, it is strictly regulated by law and state standards. Under such conditions, it is not easy to develop educational programmes that meet the needs of real enterprises, since a specialist is needed "right now" at work and he will be let work at best in two or three years and more often, even later. Therefore, there has been a proposal on expanding, supplementing the main educational programmes and offering students, along with basic disciplines, a set of additional courses that provide the very "fine tuning". It has been decided to put the main focus on practical skills, yet, not to forget about softskills (that is, a wide range of skills - ed. note), it is important to know a foreign language well and to be able to express your thoughts.

Thus, a three-year professional training programme for students of engineering specialties of the Dubna University - Dubna School of Engineering was born and supported by the Institute. This year, it was edited for the first time, the first results were summed up. The strong and weak points of the Project were revealed, the interest of the students was confirmed, it became clear where to move on. In any case, it can be argued that the DSE Project has succeeded. And the support from JINR has played an important role in this. We hope that other partners will join it, for the training of engineering personnel is a very urgent task today."

In summer, junior students of DSE had an internship at VBLHEP JINR, in the Scientific and Experimental Department of Injection and the Nuclotron Ring. Senior Engineer of VBLHEP Ilya Shirikov was the supervisor of the practice in the area of "Electronics". Judging by the reviews, the students were not disappointed, did not feel superfluous and useless at work, as it often happens in such cases.

Stepan Trubaychuk: "It was a very useful experience. I had a chance to see live the working process at enterprises of this kind. We worked in the scientific and experimental department. I have worked in various CAD systems (computer-aided design systems - ed.). My main task was to create a 3D model of the microwave amplifier unit. Previously, this task had been met, but on the old components, I had to do all the work using the new ones. In the main programme, I had previously worked in Autodesk Inventor, so I already had some basic knowledge of working with CAD. The production of electrical wiring was new to me. Separately, I want to note the "teamwork". Faced with various difficulties, I turned to experienced people who were always ready to help and explain."

Nikita Khobotnev: "I liked the "combat" practice format. For example, the first task was to make a relatively small module out of a test frequency synthesizer. I also liked the relatively free schedule: in August, for example, I worked remotely."

Andrey Krasnyakov: "The impressions are very cool. Ilya has a very good team that supervised the entire practice and helped with all issues. Everyone who was in practice received their assignments. I was given an interesting assignment in the field of microcontroller programming. I designed a state machine for the unit of internal targets, mounted and assembled the stand itself. I myself would not engage in microcontroller programming, but it turned out that it was very interesting and I want to keep on working in this area. I really liked that in such a short period of practice I received a huge amount of practical and theoretical knowledge."

These days, the next enrollment of first-year students starts at DSE. Education at the School is conducted in four main areas: electronics, 3D modeling and work with CNC machines, engineering and mathematical modeling, materials science. In September, meetings of teachers with students were held. The children were told about the possibilities and conditions of studying at School. In October-November, students will pass entrance tests in the form of introductory courses. Students who successfully complete the tasks will be enrolled in the Dubna School of Engineering and will start their studies from the beginning of the second semester. In addition, in September there is an additional enrollment of second-year students by interview. The students of technical and natural sciences are recommended to enter the School.

Messages and a photograph of the Press Service of the Dubna State University are used in the article.

For reference

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research has 7 basic departments of the Dubna State University. About 130 JINR researchers teach at the University, uniting scientific research with staff training. Every year, from 20 to 30 graduates get jobs in the JINR laboratories. To date, many graduates have defended their Ph.D. dissertations and have become supervisors in certain areas. A significant number of university graduates work at JINR as engineers.

The material was prepared by Galina MYALKOVSKAYA