Ten days for innovation

She knows the characteristics of cold-resistant steel like a multiplication table, and is ready to discuss for hours where it is better to build a factory that produces it for legal proceedings in the Arctic. Meet the LGTU Innovation team, which won the qualifying stage of the Metallurgy League of the International Engineering ChampionshipCASE-IN».

The university is participating in this prestigious competition among undergraduates and postgraduates for the second time with the support of NLMK. Last year, his Millennium team won the finals of the same league. Therefore, this time LGTU received the honorary right to open the Metallurg competition. In total, the championship included six leagues. Everything was united by a common theme – "Arctic development".

Metallurgists had to choose a technology for the production of cold-resistant steel for shipbuilding for the plant, taking into account cold conditions and current policies in the field of energy management and ecology. And also evaluate your project on all indicators, including analyzing how profitable it is. It takes ten days to prepare. It takes five minutes to perform. A penalty point is awarded for breaking the rules. 

"Each member of the team was responsible for his field of activity", – tells Sergey Lesnikov, captain of the Innovation team, - I and Alexey Kochetkov, a fourth-year student in the field of Ferrous Metallurgy, were "pure" metallurgists. Dmitry Ustinov, a master's student specializing in Thermal Power Engineering and Heat Engineering, was responsible for thermal power engineering. And Daria Shpuntova, a future economist, calculated all expenses and incomes. Although the word "future" is not quite right. All members of our team, except Alexey, are already working at NLMK."

Where to build a factory?

The guys started preparing for the championship even before the engineering case with the assignment arrived. University professors and leading NLMK employees conducted consultations. They were also ready to answer the contestants' questions when the task was received. 

"The most difficult thing was that we were sorely short of time., – counts Alexey Kochetkov, – It only seems at first glance that ten days is a long time. In fact, we worked from 9 a.m. to 6-7 p.m., and on the day before the defense, we went home even later – around 22.00. After all, the project needed to be thought through thoroughly. And there were a lot of pitfalls in the task itself. In particular, it was unclear whether this plant already exists somewhere or whether it is necessary to figure out where it is located. That's why we first placed it in Murmansk, then redesigned the project for Ulyanovsk, and only then created another one with a location in the Far East."

A unique solution

15 university teams participated in the qualifying stage, but Innovations was the only one that offered to manufacture cold-resistant steel in the Far East and ship products by water. The guys explained their choice simply. 

"First of all, this is a promising area, – explains Sergei, – Secondly, there is currently a large shipbuilding and ship repair company there and low competition. And on the same Baltic coast, where most of the participants proposed to settle, it is high. Therefore, it is economically unprofitable to open another similar plant there."

The guys understood that this location was the "trick" of the team. However, they did not expect to win in any way, dreaming of getting at least into the top five. And when the results were announced, they couldn't even believe their ears. 

Now the national team will have to go to the championship finals, which will be held in Moscow on May 30-31. There, Innovations will represent LGTU in the Metallurgy league.

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