A new month, a new graduation – and once again the history of the Belarusian National Technical University amazes with its diversity.
June 1
June 2007 brought BNTU international recognition in a truly cosmic sense. A French patent was granted for a magnetic fluid dynamic damper for spacecraft components – a development by a team of researchers from the UNESCO Chair of Energy Saving and Renewable Energy Sources and the BNTU Research Laboratory of Thermomechanics of Magnetic Fluids.
The work was led by Professors Viktor Bashtovy and Alexander Rex, together with scientists from the University of Nice – Sophia Antipolis and the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association. The French patent was proof that the developments of Belarusian scientists are in demand far beyond the country's borders.
June 2
In June 1937, the city football championship among universities and technical schools concluded in Minsk, and the team from the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute took first place with 17 points. The victory was well-deserved and, as time has shown, far from their last.
The Polytechnic's football traditions live on to this day. BNTU students regularly take to the field in national competitions, including the Universiade in mini-football, and the university hosts its own Spartakiad every year, where teams from all faculties compete for the title of best. From the 1937 city championship victory to national tournaments, football at the Polytechnic has never abated.
June 5
In 1940, the Board of the People's Commissariat of the Fuel Industry of the BSSR resolved to petition for an increase in the enrollment in the peat engineering specialty from 50 to 100 students. At the same time, a decision was made to begin construction of a peat machine laboratory at BPI: 250,000 rubles were allocated from the People's Commissariat of Trade funds for the building's construction. The peat industry needed specialists, and the institute was ready to provide them.
Eighty-three years later, in June 2023, officers and faculty from the Military-Technical Faculty of BNTU took a tour of the Palace of Independence in honor of the faculty's 90th anniversary. The guests toured the palace's halls, each of which, according to the participants, is a work of art created by Belarusians using domestic materials. The exhibition "In the Light of the Feat"—25 works by Belarusian artists dedicated to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War—made a special impression. "After visiting the Palace of Independence, our team was imbued with an even greater sense of pride for our country," noted Andrei Pochebyt, head of the faculty.
Space, football, and the Palace of Independence—not the most obvious combination for a single week. We'll find out what's on the next page in a week.
