Today, on 17 April, the Belarusian National Technical University hosted representatives of the Belarusian mass media as part of a press tour. The theme of the event was the beginning of the admission campaign and the presentation of the Polytechnic's modern educational opportunities.
The press tour started with an exhibition of engineering projects, student startups and innovative developments of the university. As part of the exhibition, students presented their own innovations. Thus, Daniil, who entered BNTU after the National Children's Technopark, told about his idea.
- The invention is a robot, which is able to make measurements and repair work. Our efforts are aimed at ensuring that in the future such robots perform more complex tasks that require coordinated actions, such as carrying heavy objects.
Besides, the exhibition presented advanced developments of the Scientific and Technological Park of BNTU ‘Polytechnik’. Ksenia Yakushenko, Vice-Rector for Scientific Work of BNTU, spoke about one of them - hip joint prosthesis.
- Hip prosthesis is an innovative solution that significantly improves the quality of life of people with joint diseases. This effective development is widely used in Belarus. On the basis of the Technopark we plan to increase the localisation of this product due to its high demand.
As part of the press tour, BNTU Rector Sergei Kharitonchik gave a commentary on the upcoming admission campaign, new specialities and targeted training.
- This year BNTU will open enrolment for new specialisations ‘technical operation of hydraulic, pneumatic machines and drives (service engineering)’, ‘control systems of unmanned complexes’, ‘engineering geodesy’, as well as for the speciality ‘ecological audit and environmental quality assurance’. However, there is currently a high demand for traditional specialities as well, as the economic structure is already established and enterprises need qualified specialists. However, training programs do not remain static: they are annually updated and coordinated with future employers in order to include all the innovations necessary for personnel training.
In addition, Sergey Vasilyevich made a presentation and a report. He touched upon a number of activities of the country's leading technical university: new educational programmes and technologies, international cooperation and student exchange, innovative projects and interaction with business, as well as graduate employment and partnership programmes.
Afterwards, Sergey Kharitonchik answered questions from the press. Most of them concerned the conditions of education of foreign students, co-operation with the Russian Federation and employment of Polytechnic graduates at advanced Belarusian enterprises.
- Our university has an opportunity to increase the number of foreign students up to 6000 in the upcoming intake. We strive for internationalisation and higher rankings, providing comfortable study and living conditions for students, and maintaining a balance between Belarusian and foreign students. The interest in training engineering specialists is growing, which is confirmed by the high demand for education in prestigious universities such as ours.
The final stage of the press tour was a tour of the laboratories and subdivisions of the university. The guests visited the Centre of Technical Hydromechanics and Hydraulic Machines. Igor Kachanov, Head of the Department of Hydrotechnical and Power Engineering Construction, Water Transport and Hydraulics of the Faculty of Energy Construction, informed the guests about its modern equipment and experiments conducted on its basis. The attendees also saw the mechanism of the shipping lock on the example of a mock-up, culverts and principles of their operation.
The tour continued in the training building of the Military-Technical Faculty. WTF Head Andrei Pochebyt and First Deputy Head of the WTF Igor Yankovsky briefed the press on the specialities of the faculty and the simulators on which cadets are trained. Such simulators allow students to acquire practical skills in conditions as close as possible to real ones.
During the excursion Andrey Alexandrovich noted that the main task of the faculty is to train highly qualified specialists capable of successfully solving problems in the field of defence and security.
The guests were also shown classrooms, military and combat training equipment, including tanks-72B, BMP-2, which were allowed not only to see, but also to touch with their own hands.
The press tour came to an end, leaving the guests with a lot of impressions. The event helped to understand more deeply and realise the important role of engineering and technical education in Belarus.
