At the "CASE-IN" championship, Stavropol youth offered technological ideas

The International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN", a project of the Russia – the Land of Opportunities platform, allows future and novice specialists to plunge into production problems and find a way out that will interest representatives of large companies.

AiF-SK found out what the participants from Stavropol offered and how valuable such competitions of young minds are. 

The South supplies the country with energy workers

International Engineering Championship «CASE-IN»  The forum, which was first held in 2013, covers more and more sectors of the economy every year, ranging from the fuel and energy complex to design engineering. 

Competitions are held among schoolchildren, students and young professionals from Russia and the CIS. The finalists compete in Moscow and receive awards from the partners of the championship – industry companies, universities, as well as development opportunities through the projects of the presidential platform. "Russia is a land of opportunity", which the project has been part of since 2019. Among the 26 projects of the platform are the "Leaders of Russia" competition, the university Olympiad "I am a professional", the "Professional Training 2.0" project, the school competition "Big Change" and others.

 "The platform provides a wide range of opportunities for self-realization, helps you decide on a profession, complete an internship or find your first job, get a mentor or new knowledge, – Alexey Agafonov, Deputy General Director of ANO "Russia is a land of opportunities", notes. – The CASE-IN championship provides an opportunity for young people from different regions of Russia to develop by solving real production tasks, engaging in scientific and technical creativity and receiving an engineering education. Last season, the championship's competitions brought together a record 10,015 schoolchildren, students and young professionals. The ninth season is in full swing, which this time is dedicated to "Sustainable Development". The example of several thousand project participants proves that the championship is a ticket to the future, allowing you to move up the career ladder, find your dream job and become a true professional."

The "Electric Power Industry" field in the Student League is one of the most popular and numerous in the "CASE–IN" championship. According to Dmitry Kostyukov, CASE-IN curator at North Caucasus Federal University, participant and multiple finalist of the League of Young Specialists as part of the NCFU faculty team, energy specialists trained in the south of the country, noticed by employers during case solving, easily find jobs both in Stavropol and in other regions.

"NCFU is one of the strongest in the field of Electric Power engineering and is among the top ten in the ranking of universities participating in the CASE–IN. The team of teachers organizing the NCFU championship has received the special award "Energy of Education" three times for the best organization of the qualifying stage", - says Artem Korolev, founder and co-chairman of the organizing committee of the CASE-IN championship.

Digitalizing and robotizing

Arsen Shidov, a graduate of NCFU with a bachelor's degree in Power engineering and electrical engineering, is a third–generation power engineer and a frequent participant in the CASE-IN.

"I am writing my thesis on the implementation of an automated electricity metering system in the Azovsky Distribution Zone division of PJSC ROSSETI, – he told me. – And before that, I participated in the "CASE-IN" four times every six months. In the autumn cups, our team reached the finals and traveled to Moscow. In 2019, we worked on the topic "Digitalization of the electric power industry in the Far East." We proposed to build a digital substation for the Amur Gas Processing Plant, which is being built in the Far East, and reached the Moscow final. Last year, in the autumn cup, we won in the North Caucasus Federal District with a proposal to introduce an automated electricity metering system with a blockchain in ROSSETI North Caucasus. Participation in the championship allows you to understand the Russian electric power industry, find out which territories of advanced development exist, what they plan to implement there, and understand how the companies you plan to work for work in the future."

Arsen's classmate Alim Murzakanov worked with Arsen on the championship cases several times. He first learned about such a competition in his first year, participated as a volunteer, and in his second year he wanted to try to solve a real production problem himself. 

"During the championship, we studied the growth points on the map of international and Russian energy. We came to the conclusion that the Stavropol Territory is promising in terms of investing in energy, – He told me. – We considered an automatic electricity metering system, which not only counts the amount of electricity consumed, but also allows us to calculate where electricity is being lost and notice a wire break in time. Such artificial intelligence-based systems are already being implemented, including in Kabardino-Balkaria, where I come from." 

About 20 teams from NCFU participate in the district stage of the championship. This year, Viktor Mikhailenko, a first-year graduate student at NCFU and a multiple CASE-IN finalist, worked in one of them on the task of digitalizing energy in the context of a pandemic. "The championship broadens horizons. You are given a task, and you begin to study a lot of information that is not in the curriculum.- He said. –  We had to solve a case study on how to ensure the sustainable development of the energy company, taking into account the pandemic. We talked with representatives of companies, and they said that when people start to get sick, there are not enough staff, and document management becomes difficult. Therefore, we were looking for solutions to minimize human involvement and automate all processes as much as possible. For example, semi-automatic switching units are currently used at electrical substations, which we have proposed to replace with fully automatic ones."

 One of his team members, Mikhail Lobanov, is only completing his first year of bachelor's degree, but he also actively offered automation ideas. "The repair of power transmission lines can be entrusted to robots. The quadcopter sits on the wires, performs an inspection and repairs, – he told me. – It looks like a fantasy, but experiments on the use of such robots have already been conducted in production conditions."

Offers are not taken from the ceiling: The participants of the championship study scientific literature and international experience, justifying each decision and calculating the economic effect of its implementation.

According to Viktor Mikhailenko, there is always a career day at the finals of the championship in Moscow, when participants meet with representatives of companies, and those, in turn, take note of talented guys and add them to the talent pool. 

"It is also valuable that after the performance at the championship we receive feedback. Professional experts point out to us the strengths and weaknesses of our solutions, give us their contacts, and we can turn to them for help in the future.", – said Victor.

Continued by the link