On May 26th in Ufa, one of the flagship Russian universities – the Ufa State Petroleum Technological University – hosted professor K.F. Bogatykh’s International Olympiad for students for the nineth time, with “Chemical Engineering Processes and Apparatuses” chosen as its main scientific discipline. The Olympiad was designed as a challenge for STEM students from all over Russia, as well as other countries, such as Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. In keeping with tradition, Technology Engineering Holding “Peton” took on the responsibility as the organizer and primary sponsor for the event.
The Olympiad, which was first hosted in 2017, but then went through reorganization in 2021 to support both remote and in-person participation, is recognized as one of the most popular academic competitions in its field today.
This time, 22 student teams elected to participate in the event – that is more than 70 people in total, with 29 having chosen to attend the Ufa Olympiad in person, while the rest opted to try to tackle the problems remotely. The event featured both individual and team championships. Senior-year full-time students whose training programs cover “Chemical Engineering Processes and Apparatuses” and the related disciplines were invited.
The aim of the Olympiad is to increase the interest in and awareness of its chosen discipline, broaden the students’ knowledge, and support the most gifted of them. The academic competition movement stimulates both the educational and research-and-development activities, enhances one’s creative capabilities, logical thinking, offers the students a chance to reflect on and gauge their level of preparedness, and invites them to attempt to identify new solutions for engineering problems.
Students from the following higher education institutions have chosen to attend the event in person:
- Ufa State Petroleum Technological University (including the branch in the city of Sterlitamak),
- Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation — Russian Technological University,
- Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas,
- Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology (Technical University),
- Kazan National Research Technological University,
- B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University,
- National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University,
- Perm National Research Polytechnic University.
For the first time ever, a team from the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industrial University (city of Baku) decided to enter the Olympiad.
The 1st place in the team championship was shared by the students representing B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University (city of Ekaterinburg) and Kazan National Research Technological University (city of Kazan). Nikita Minchenkov, USPTU student, claimed the first place in the individual championship for the fourth time, the second place was shared by Igor Merzlyakov, representing KNRTU, and Konstantin Lastochkin, representing RSUOG, while the third place was awarded to Andrei Sidorov and Rodion Bardakov of UFU, as well as Anna Zhikhareva of SPSIT.
With regard to the remote teams’ rating, a group of students representing Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design was able to take the first place, while Leonid Schmidt, a student from the same university, won the first place in the individual championship.
PETON prepared valuable prizes and souvenirs for all the participants. On May 27, an award ceremony for the winners was held under the auspices of the international specialized exhibition “Oil. Gas. Technologies”.
We talked to Nikita Denisovich Minchenkov, Ufa State Petroleum Technological University student and a regular participant of the Olympiad, who took the first place in the individual championship. This is what he had to say.
This is not the first time you have claimed the top position. What is it, in your opinion, that helps you achieve tremendous results like that over and over again? What does it take to keep oneself motivated, year after year, and maintain a streak of victories?
I think that the secret has to do, first and foremost, with the interest in the topic, strong grasp of the theory, and a lot of practice. But the sense of interest, or, if you will, passion and enthusiasm, remains the main driving force. It is what helps the participants of the Olympiad to succeed.
Given that you are graduating from the university this year, this Olympiad is going to be your last. What are your plans and how do you envision your future? How does your participation in the Olympiad help you to achieve your goals?
I envision myself pursuing scientific and design engineering disciplines, and this event helps one to build a knowledge base to attain these goals.
Do you believe that this Olympiad was different from its previous iterations? Have the problems, for example, become more difficult?
New types of problems are introduced every year, and I find it interesting. Some of the problems seem more difficult, while others, at times, seem more approachable, but the level of challenge remains consistently high.