The winners of the "CASE-IN" Championship from BNTU about their second place

Most recently, the team of the Belarusian National Technical University, consisting of 3rd-year students of the Electrical Systems Department of the Faculty of Energy Bulin Maxim, Borshchevsky Andrey, Losenkov Daniil and Tarasevich Daniil, took second place in the overall final of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN".

We talked to the guys and found out what case they were working on, how long it took to prepare for the championship and what, in their opinion, was not enough to win. Maxim Bulin, the captain of the team, said that "CASE-IN" is an international competition system for solving engineering cases for schoolchildren, students and young specialists of fuel and energy and mineral resource complexes. The championship includes several leagues (school in several areas, student and young professionals). Since 2020, a special "ECO-CASE" league has been added to them, in which, in fact, the team of the Faculty of Energy participated.  For reference: The championship is included in the platform of ANO "Russia – the land of opportunities", the supervisory board of which is headed by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, as well as in the top 15 Olympiads of the world according to the rating agency "RAEX" (RAEX-Analytics).

– Initially, there were five qualifying stages in the largest cities, for example, Moscow and St. Petersburg. We participated in the qualifying stage "Minsk" by region. There were five teams in total at our stage (three from BNTU and one each from BSTU and BelGUT). The composition of our team was immediately known, since we are all friends and classmates, so there were no problems here. Moreover, we discussed the issue of participation earlier, although only one person had any idea what kind of championship it was, the rest had only a desire to try themselves and pure enthusiasm.

Daniil Losenkov He has been participating in the championship for three years in a row, starting from the first year. He noted that the students mostly prepared on their own, but the curator, Dmitry Alexandrovich Sekatsky, senior lecturer at the Department of Electrical Systems, also made a great contribution.

– Of course, our supervisor provided support, whether it was moral or technical. In addition, we contacted and consulted with many teachers to get a more competent and outside opinion on our decision, for which we thank Ekaterina Mikhailovna Getsman and Andrey Leonidovich Burov.  The assignment received by the guys is a case study. The case does not have a definite right or, conversely, a completely wrong solution. The most appropriate one is selected by the members of the expert commission on the basis of its prospects, feasibility, competent arguments and clear presentation of the material.  At the qualifying stage, the team had to work on the topic "Improving the level of environmental safety and economic efficiency of nuclear power plants," which, according to the team captain, was completely new to them. But the task of the final stage included 22 pages of relevant information for a quick introduction to the course, then only an independent study of the problem.

The task consisted of three points:  Conducting an analysis of existing technologies and enterprises. Presentation of promising technologies. Development of a specific implementation plan, the cost of costs/services and the payback period of the plan.

– Now, in the age of information, finding clear, official and not outdated information is still a challenge. Nevertheless, we found the information we needed and, filtering it out, obtained reliable data., – noted Daniil. The students were given 10 days to complete the task. During this time, they had to study the provided material, work out the idea and concept of the project, its presentation and answers to questions that may arise during the defense of the work. – The defense took place in an online format on the Webinar platform. We learned the first results during the live broadcast of the award ceremony. Initially, there was a draw, as a result of which we performed almost at the very end. There was a 30-minute break right before our performance, which made it possible to run it all over again, but even here it wasn't without surprises: one of the teammates turned off the Internet 5 minutes before the performance, and this is something else, I'll tell you. However, fortunately, everything worked out., – shares Daniil Tarasevich. 

After defending all the teams, the jury retired to a meeting, after which the results of the championship were announced. The award ceremony was held online on the Zoom platform. – The second place, in my opinion, is a good result, considering that we did not expect to win. Initially, we wanted to enter the top 10 teams. I am happy with the work, although we could have tightened up the economic part. The methodology and technology that we proposed are only developing, so it was extremely difficult to find the final figures (testing of the methodology is planned only in 2024), – explained Andrey Borshchevsky.  Everyone answered the question "What did the team lack to get to first place?" in different ways, but absolutely everyone is sure that they didn't have enough experience, because, according to the captain of the team, it is impossible to know everything.  – We should pay tribute to the winners of the championship, they also did a great job, which was well appreciated. They're the winners today, we're the winners tomorrow, there's still a fuse, so we'll compete again., – I'm sure Maksim. 

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