SPbGASU named the winning team of the qualifying stage of the CASE-IN championship

SPbGASU summed up the results of the qualifying stage of the International Engineering CASE-IN Championship in the field of Architecture, Design, Construction and Housing and Communal Services.

CASE-IN was created 13 years ago with the aim of promoting engineering and technical education and educating future highly qualified specialists. The organizers of the championship are the Reliable Change Foundation, the Non-profit Partnership Youth Forum of Mining Leaders, AstraLogica LLC and the presidential platform Russia – the Land of Opportunities. The championship is included in the "Science to Win" initiative of the Decade of Science and Technology in Russia. The selection stage at St. Petersburg State University was organized by the Center for Student Entrepreneurship and Career of our university.

According to the Vice Rector for Youth Policy Marina Malyutina, SPbGASU has been participating in the CASE-IN since 2019. According to Marina Viktorovna, this is a fundamental and important decision for an engineering university. Students are showing good results, and the number of applicants is growing year by year. In the future, they are offered internships, internships, and employment opportunities. Previously, the university participated in the competence of "Engineering design", and the tasks were not fully specialized. Now, thanks to the Metropolis company, students of St. Petersburg State University have the opportunity to apply the specialized knowledge they receive at the university.

The director of the Reliable Shift Charitable Foundation, founder of the CASE-IN International Engineering Championship, shared his plans for the 13th season in his video message Artem Korolev: This year there will be school, student, and special leagues. 280 schools are expected to participate in the school league. There are more than 220 universities in the student league, of which 80 will take the full–time qualifying stage. A total of 18,500 participants are expected – schoolchildren, students, young professionals, experts, mentors, curators. The theme of the 13th season is "Technological Innovation".

The First Deputy Director General of the autonomous non–profit organization "Russia - the Land of Opportunities" spoke about the success of the project in a video message. Gennady Guryanov: During its existence, the project has brought together more than 120,000 schoolchildren, students and young professionals from Russia and neighboring countries. Since 2019, together with the presidential platform "Russia – the Land of Opportunities", the project has been providing youth with opportunities for personal, professional and career growth.

Eight teams spent 21 days solving a case from Metropolis, the initiator of the direction and a strategic partner of the championship. Each team brought together students from different fields. Under the guidance of mentors, future architects, builders, and designers developed a hotel and tourist complex in a natural area. The results of their work were evaluated by an expert commission, which included representatives of Metropolis and SPbGASU.

Architectural and constructive solutions, power supply systems, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, general requirements (technology, fire safety, energy efficiency, automation systems) were evaluated. It also took into account how fluent the speakers are in professional terminology, how they can express and justify their judgments; how clear and understandable the slide structure is; how logically they answer questions, etc. After the end of the defenses, the experts gave targeted feedback to the teams assigned to them: they identified strengths and growth areas, gave comments, and tips on how to improve the solution.

Member of the Expert Committee, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management for Academic Affairs, Associate Professor of the Department of Management in Construction Olga Bochkareva believes that the championship gave students the opportunity to "pump up" their knowledge in practice, to feel that the whole project depends on the overall work. In addition, the competition showed that students of technical specialties need to learn how to perform: "No matter what profession students study – builder, designer, architect – it is important to be able to "sell" their project. There's nowhere in the modern world without it!"

Member of the Expert Commission, Head of the Department of Architectural Design Andrey Surovenkov believes that the advantage of the championship is that students of different specialties, who most likely did not know each other before, join a team. This is also a useful experience for the curators – they had to set the vector for creating a good project.

Chairman of the Expert Commission, Head of the Metropolis Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Department Group Kirill Pivovarov is sure that for the company, the championship is primarily about attracting new employees. Moreover, employers have the opportunity to evaluate their abilities without an interview and a probation period. For students, this is an opportunity to create. When writing the assignment, the company was guided by the current capabilities of the students and, at the same time, sought to bring the tasks closer to reality.

"This is a great experience for the guys in terms of putting their skills into practice. The theory they study at the university is superimposed on a real project here, and this will help them in their future work. Many students are doing well: they have quite serious projects at the level of practicing designers. I would rate the overall level of work as very high," said a member of the expert commission, senior lecturer at the Department of Heat and Gas Supply and Ventilation. Sergey Kashnikov.

"I regularly participate in the evaluation of student papers at various competitions, both within our university and at other venues. It should be noted that such competitions develop students' extremely important skills of independent work, including as part of project teams. And it is especially pleasant to observe that the level of students' work is growing from year to year," said a member of the expert commission, Deputy director of the Educational Center for Digital Competencies. Denis Nizhegorodtsev.

The third place went to the YeezyBIM team (mentor – Associate Professor of the Department of Heat and Gas Supply and Ventilation Victor Yakovlev). It includes Alina Kizchenko (fourth year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, leader/BIM coordinator), Arina Tereshchenko (fourth year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Architecture, architect), Olga Gavrichenkova (third year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, Engineer of Water Use and Sewerage), Anna Yarullina (fourth year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and urban management, design engineer of internal electrical equipment and lighting), Yaroslav Perevalov (fourth year Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Polina Orlova (fourth year Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, heating and Ventilation engineer).

The second place was won by the Bim Bam Boom team (mentor – assistant of the Architectural Environment Design Department Dmitry Fleisher). The team consists of Emilia Sukhareva (fourth year Bachelor's degree in Architecture, leader/architect), Kirill Besedin (fourth year Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, designer), Daniil Goncharenko (fourth year Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, Heating and Ventilation Engineer), Mikhail Danilchenko (third year Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, designer), Kirill Ivanov (fourth year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, BIM Coordinator), Sergey Sergeev (fourth year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, power Supply Engineer), Dmitry Sidorchuk (fourth year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, Water Supply and Sanitation Engineer).

"The team decided to implement the current principle of naturalness as the most appropriate to a given topic. It implies minimizing the impact on the environment and using natural factors for the functioning of the facility. The team worked under the leadership of Captain Emilia Sukhareva, a talented student studying at the DAS Department. Kirill Besedin is the most experienced and proactive member of the team. Daniil Goncharenko, with his design experience, has successfully implemented the general concept of ventilation and heating. Dmitry Sidorchuk, having extensive experience in participating in competitions of this kind, managed to provide the facility with water supply and sewerage networks. Sergey Sergeev, also an experienced member of the team, was involved in the design of power supply networks and showed excellent results. Mikhail Danilchenko gained his first experience of participating in the team on this project, but he coped with the tasks set very well. Kirill Ivanov provided BIM technologies throughout the entire project and in all its directions. Well done!" summed up Dmitry Fleisher.

The first place was awarded to the C-Key team (mentor – Alexander Glukhanov, Deputy Dean for Career Guidance, Associate Professor of the Department of Technosphere Security). It includes Ekaterina Buryak (third year of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Chief Project Engineer), Alexandra Leonova (third year of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, BIM Coordinator), Elizaveta Petrova (third year Bachelor's degree in Architecture, architect), Sofya Tarkhanova (third year specialist in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Denis Lebedev (third year specialist in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Alexey Khimichev (third year Bachelor's degree in Architecture, architect), Alexander Katsyuba (third year Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, specialist in engineering Networks).

"It was difficult. But we took a comprehensive approach to the solution, complied with all the requirements of the TOR and achieved the result!" – Ekaterina Buryak is sure.

"This is the first time such an experience of live interaction with a subject area. I've worked with guys from other fields, and it's been very interesting. I've been re-learning some programs, and I've learned a lot in these three weeks. The experience is tremendous!" shared Alexander Katsyuba.

"Together with Elizaveta Petrova, we developed the architectural solutions section. And we want to say that this project was very interesting for us from the point of view of cooperation between specialists in related fields. It was interesting to keep track of how architectural issues are related to issues of engineering networks, constructive solutions, and how all issues are solved in the design system," said Alexey Khimichev.

Alexander Glukhanov, the mentor of the winners, commented: "The team has developed a concept for the development of a tourist cluster on the Black Sea coast. The students completed a detailed description of the construction project, took into account the specifics of the area, the needs of tourists, and the possibilities of using the infrastructure. We have created a harmonious arrangement of a park area located in the heart of the territory, an active recreation area and an entrance area, integrated recreation areas and other functional components of the complex. Special attention was paid to the optimal combination of spatial planning solutions: functional, sanitary, hygienic and fire protection requirements were taken into account."

 The champions and prize-winners of the Architecture, Design, Construction and Housing and Communal Services direction will be invited to an internship at the Metropolis company with the prospect of further employment. The winning team will take part in the final competition, which will be held in Moscow at the end of May.

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