MGRI - RGGRU: Two stages and three finalists! Or where does the thirst for victory lead?

On April 9, 2015, the qualifying stages of the mining and exploration leagues of the All-Russian Fuel and Energy Case Solving Championship were held at the Sergo Ordzhonikidze Russian State Geological Exploration University.

MGRI - RGGRU trains specialists in almost all areas of the exploration industry. The University plays a leading role in higher geological education and solving key problems of geological and mining science.

Nikolay Klochkov, Director of the Institute of Modern Technologies of Geological Exploration, Mining and Oil and Gas Engineering, MGRI - RGGRU, I congratulated the participants and guests on the opening of the qualifying stage.: «Today's qualifying stage is very important in the education of new mining engineers. The main thing about the Championship is that students, due to their open-mindedness, can offer something completely new. Maybe industry professionals will laugh at this new thing, maybe these ideas will not be implemented, but the most important thing is that our graduates, and among them the participants of the Championship, keep this attitude towards novelty and non-standard technical solutions. I want to wish our students creativity. Your knowledge should help you to create new businesses and new directions in the industry."

Representatives of federal and regional authorities take part in each qualifying stage of the Championship. A representative of the national partner of the Championship arrived at the MGRI stage. Agencies for Strategic Initiatives ─  Ivan Belanov, Coordinator of the All-Russian Fuel and Energy Case Management Championship at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, who noted a number of advantages of the Championship for training engineers: "The championship is aimed at educating the future technological elite of Russia. Considering the course towards modernizing engineering education and popularizing engineering professions, the Championship provides Russia with invaluable assistance in educating engineering personnel who will take our country to a new level in the global community, who will be able to implement world-class engineering projects. Of course, traditional engineering education cannot be replaced by case studies, it is a fundamental education that provides solid knowledge that specialists need. However, within the framework of traditional educational programs, it is impossible to teach how to solve practice-oriented tasks, because the lecture and seminar system is limited in this regard. Fuel and Energy Case Solving Championship ─ This is an upgrade, an opportunity that helps engineering education in Russia develop in a practice-oriented manner. The Agency for Strategic Initiatives is pleased to support the Championship, which already has a wonderful present and an equally wonderful future."

The special guest of the stage was Ivan Petrov, Director of JSC TSNIIeugol, who, together with the organizers of the Championship, held an experimental case championship at Moscow State Mining University in 2013. Igor Petrov highly appreciated the possibilities of the Championship as a modern educational project.: "The peculiarity of education in the field of mining and geological exploration is that we, teachers and representatives of scientific organizations, train specialists with a wide range of knowledge and broad horizons. The championship you are participating in today is an opportunity for you to gain broad knowledge based not only on mining science, but also on the intersection of different information and scientific streams. Today I wish you to show your ability to think outside the box, based on the basic knowledge gained at the university.  Now, within the walls of the university, you can make mistakes, and we, the expert community, will correct you. But I would like that in the future, when you become industry professionals, you would work without mistakes."

The championship is held with the support of a number of enterprises of the fuel and energy complex, and every year new companies are added to the pool of partners who want to assess the level of training of students at universities, personally participate in the work of expert commissions, and meet with future specialists.

The MGRI -RGGRU stage was supported by Rosgeologiya, which has been cooperating with this university for several years and joined the Championship in 2015 to evaluate the methodology for solving cases and select students - potential employees. Alexander Karpuzov, Chief  Department of Long-term Planning of JSC "Rosgeologiya" He told the students about the company and stressed his interest in attracting qualified young specialists, including those who would actively prove themselves during the qualifying stage.: "The championship is a competition, and it would seem that there should be winners and losers in it. But in fact, all of you, the participants of the Championship, win, because you gain the necessary experience in demonstrating your achievements to a fairly representative expert community. On the other hand, participation in the Championship enriches you with new professional knowledge and gives you a very clear professional orientation for the future. Good luck to everyone!"

The decisions of the students in both leagues were evaluated by an expert jury consisting of representatives of the partner companies of the Championship: JSC Rosgeologiya, GOLTSBLAT BLP, CJSC RUDGEORAZVEDKA, JSC MHC EuroChem, JSC TSNIIeugol, LLC Dassault System Geovia RUS, LLC MYCROMINE RUS, JSC Tulskoye NIGP, and also, teachers and scientists of MGRI, RGGRU and the Institute of Problems of Integrated Development of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Geological exploration is a key area of MGRI - RGGU, engineers - geologists of MGRI - RGGU are known all over the world as first-class specialists. The university prepared with all its might for the geological exploration competitions: 9 teams of future MGRI - RGGRU geologists and 1 guest team immediately entered the competition for a ticket to the finals (more on it later). The expert jury evaluated 10 competent, really interesting, and, most importantly, different solutions to the case. "Increasing the profitability of a deposit based on a geological study with the preparation of a work project" and she made a difficult choice.

As a result, she won the qualifying stage of the exploration league. Geologists 05 team Roman Martynyuk (captain of the team) and Maria Khodnya are students of the Department of Geology of Mineral Deposits at the Institute of Geology of Mineral Resources of MGRI - RGGRU.

The highlight of the stage was the participation of the guests, a team of geologists from Lomonosov Moscow State University. MSU's full-time participation in the Championship has been postponed to 2015 for technical reasons, but the thirst for victory cannot be postponed to next year. Therefore, the organizers of the Championship, meeting the initiative of the MSU students, invited them to the competition at MGRI - RGGRU. The guests, the Green Air team, brilliantly presented their university and became the silver medalists of the stage.  The determination and high level of preparation of the MSU team led to the jury's decision to invite the silver medalists of the stage to participate in the Championship finals!

So, the second finalists of the qualifying stage of the exploration league: The Green Air team The 4th year students of the Department of Seismometry and Geoacoustics, Faculty of Geology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Andrey Ponomarev (team captain) and Daniil  Kunchenko.

On the same day, competitions of future mining engineers were held: 5 teams participated in the qualifying stage of the mining league. For 10 days, the guys solved the case "Choosing the most efficient option for mining and transportation complex and improving its efficiency" and on the day of the defense, they presented their decisions to the jury.

Recognized as the winner of the qualifying stage of the mining league The "Bugger" team (4th year students of the Institute of Modern Technologies of Geological Exploration, Mining and Oil and Gas Engineering of MGRI - RGGRU):

• Arkady Khasanov (Team Captain, Department of Geotechnology and Integrated Development of Mineral Deposits)
• Evgeny Kartashov (Department of Mechanization, Automation and Energy of Mining and geological exploration)
• Alyona Klimenkova (Department of Geotechnology and Integrated Development of Mineral Deposits)
• Maria Zyryanova (Department of Geotechnology and Integrated Development of Mineral Deposits)

The finalists of MGRI - RGGRU will compete with the winners from other universities at the final on May 28-29, 2015 in Moscow.

The general partners of the Championship are: JSC "System Operator of the Unified Energy System", JSC "Siberian Coal Energy Company", Micromine company, JSC "MHC "EuroChem", LLC "Siberian Generating Company", EVRAZ company and
Raspadskaya Coal Company JSC, RUSSDRAGMET Management Company, Dasso System Geovia RUS LLC.

MGRI Stage Partner - RGGRU: JSC "Rosgeologiya".

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