The qualifying stage of the International Engineering Championship "Case-in" was held at the Polytechnic University

On March 15, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University hosted the qualifying stage of the Electric Power Industry League of the V International Engineering Championship “Case-in". For the first time, Polytech became the venue for this case championship and brought together not only students of our university, but also representatives of other universities in the city.

International Engineering Championship "Case-in” − the only federal case-championship of fuel and energy and mineral resources complexes in Russia. In the jubilee championship, more than three thousand students are competing to reach the finals in five areas (leagues): "Electric power industry", "Mining", "Geological exploration", "Metallurgy" and "Oil and gas business". By the way, the Electric Power Industry is the biggest league: representatives of 23 universities from all over the country compete in it.

The qualifying stage of the Case-in championship at Polytech was opened by the organizer of the event, Director of the Reliable Change Charitable Foundation A.S. KOROLEV. "It's great that the Polytechnic University has become one of the venues for the qualifying stage. I hope that you will immediately show excellent results," Artyom Sergeyevich addressed the participants of the contest. The winning team of the local stage will represent their university at the final of the championship in Moscow in May this year, and the best of the best will receive a cup from the hands of the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander NOVAK.

Parting words were also given to the participants by the university administration. Vice-Rector for Research V.V. SERGEEV encouraged the students to participate in such projects, because "teamwork and learning beyond theoretical courses allow you to discover a lot of new things about yourself." Polytechnic students really have good traditions of participation in case championships and the university regularly hosts regional stages of such case-solving competitions as Metal Cup and European Engineering Competitions. At the opening of the Case-in championship, V.V. TITKOV, Deputy Director of the Institute of Energy and Transport Systems (IEiTS) of St. Petersburg State University, emphasized that solving cases, rather than theoretical problems from textbooks, helps students develop and prepare for work in a profession in real conditions.

The League on Electric Power Industry is co–organized by the Youth Section of the International Council for Large High Voltage Electrical Systems (CIGRE), and the case for the participants was developed based on materials from Joint Stock Company System Operator of the Unified Energy System (JSC SO UES), an organization that provides centralized operational dispatch management in the Unified Energy System of Russia.  Nine teams took part in the qualifying stage: seven represented the Polytechnic University, and there were also teams from St. Petersburg State University and the N.G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy.

In 10 days, the teams had to solve a case in which the projected power supply system of the Bystrinsky Mining and Processing Plant was considered. The students faced such tasks as determining the internal power supply scheme of the enterprise before its connection to the UES of Russia, calculating the electrical load of the plant, the timing and cost of building the system, and a number of others. Chairman of the expert commission, Polytech graduate, senior engineer of the Department of Electrical Modes and Organization of Repairs of the Head Grid Management Center of the branch of PJSC FGC UES – MES of the North-West B.V. GUTARCHUK noted, "it takes at least a year to fully immerse himself in solving this problem."

However, the students did not have that much time, and the "Last Iteration" team demonstrated the best possible result in the shortest possible time, according to the jury. The success of the team can also be explained by the fact that, in addition to studying at the Polytechnic, the guys work in their specialty – at the Scientific and Technical Center of the Unified Energy System. 1st-year graduate student Alexander LYAMOV (team captain) specializes in calculating short circuits, 2nd-year graduate students Margarita SHKUTOVA and Radmir MINGAZOV are engaged in steady-state calculations, and 4th-year student Evgeny NESTERENKO is undergoing an internship at the company.

The guys shared that winning the competition came as a complete surprise to them: "None of us had any experience participating in such events, and we just wanted to show our engineering skills. When the envelope with the name of the winning team was opened, we understood that we were not the only ones worthy of victory. And there was all the more joy when the "Latest Iteration" turned out to be in the envelope." By the way, the name of the team has a deep meaning, because in order to calculate steady-state modes (which is one of the main tasks of specialists in the field of electric power systems and networks), a certain number of iterations, that is, calculation cycles, is required. And only one iteration will be as correct as possible – the last one. That's what the engineers are working with.

Now the guys are preparing for a responsible mission – to adequately represent the Polytechnic University in the finals of the Case-in championship. However, they were not the only ones who got a ticket to the finals. The team of the N.G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy "Anchor" took the 2nd place at the qualifying stage, and, according to the terms of the championship, since the guys did not perform at their native university and won the prize, they also had the right to participate in the championship finals.

A source: http://www.spbstu.ru/media/news/achievements/polytech-qualifying-stage-international-engineering-championship-case-in/