Future metallurgists of the Chelyabinsk region became winners of the CASE-IN championship

From May 28 to May 30, Moscow hosted the final of the International Engineering CASE-IN Championship, in which the SUSU 660°C team, consisting of students from the Polytechnic Institute, became the winner of the Student League in the field of Metallurgy.

More than 300 students, as well as 150 representatives from the CIS countries, took part in the final defense of the projects of the winners of the qualifying and semi-final stages. The theme of the final was the direction of "Lean manufacturing".

The SUSU Polytechnic Institute team includes students from the Department of Metalworking Processes and Machines by Pressure Danil Yusupov, Daler Filchenko and Egor Alekseev, as well as a student of Materials Science and Physico-Chemistry of Materials Ekaterina Belyaeva.

"The team was solving a rather serious task from UC RUSAL, divided into several stages. The formulation of the task was unusual in that, on the one hand, it required a detailed immersion in aluminum electrolysis technology, and on the other hand, representatives of the company formulated a requirement to propose development options using a very trending direction, the concept of lean manufacturing. The guys traditionally performed well. We have been reaching the finals of technological strategy championships for several years, and our university is considered the forge of "materials technology engineers" – one of the strongest in training students in this field. This high result is facilitated by the innovative approaches to learning that are used at the university. This includes a digital department, and various extracurricular activities such as an accelerator, hackathons, work in a fablab and a "Boiling Point". Our best guys, cooking in this kitchen, solving various tasks, continue to show themselves well, getting engineering positions at advanced production facilities in the region and the country. And the result we showed last week is very cool.", – said the mentor of the team, senior lecturer at the Department of Processes and Machines of OMD Oleg Siverin.

"The final case was to find places at the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant where it is possible to modernize or integrate technologies that can increase the efficiency of the enterprise using lean manufacturing tools. Based on the visualization of the process, it was decided to use the Poka-Yoke tool, a mechanism that prevents errors. The experts evaluated our project, noting the strength of the integrated approach: the choice of equipment, the proposal for the import substitution of components, the possibility of manufacturing special thermal protective casings directly at the enterprise, as well as a full calculation of the economics of the proposed solutions.", – He says Danil Yusupov, student of the OMD department.

«The main difficulty in the solutions was the requirement for an integrated approach to the implementation of tools with a step-by-step procedure for their implementation in enterprises. In my opinion, it was possible to enter the top three in the championship thanks to a high-quality analysis of hypotheses, solutions, risk assessment and economics. For me, participation in such championships helps to develop teamwork skills, allows me to gain useful connections and acquaintances, as well as gives me an idea of enterprises, learn their structure, what processes they have, what products they produce, and so on. I would like to thank the teachers of the Polytechnic Institute (departments of PiMOMD, PiLT, MiFHM) and the Higher School of Economics and Management (Department of EPiUP) for providing direct or indirect support in solving cases.", – said the SUSU student and the captain of the team Egor Alekseev, a student in the field of "Technological machines and equipment".

The Polytech team for the championship was formed consciously: The students used not only the knowledge gained during lectures at the university, but also the so–called soft skills, the "flexible" skills necessary for any engineer and acquired during their studies at SUSU. Danil Yusupov, who is studying in the field of "Pressure processing of materials", in addition to technology research, has become an excellent automation specialist, Ekaterina Belyaeva is not only a first-class materials scientist, but also an analyst, Daler Filchenko, who is studying in the field of "Technological Machines and Equipment", is strong in industrial design, and Egor Alekseev, has experience not only in engineering of technological equipment, but can also calculate the economic result of any innovative technical implementation.

And it was this approach that made it possible to raise the flag of South Ural State University high at the final award ceremony in Moscow.

A source