“Lecturer Avatar, Quantorium, and Emulator Trainor,” Georgiy Kalyagin on the Innovative Developments of Academic Technology at SUSU

 

Once again, the technical sphere of education is developing in Russia. In our country, it is once again prestigious to be an engineer, builder, or aviator. The basis of quality professional technical education is, on the one hand, the highly qualified staff of a university, and on the other, the high-tech material and informational infrastructure of the academic process.

To form such conditions in an educational institution it is first of all necessary to develop the academic and technical foundation. The leader in developing and implementing academic techniques and technologies in Russia is South Ural State University. Georgiy Kalyagin, candidate of technical sciences, professor, director of the scientific and manufacturing institute (SMI) Academic Techniques and Technologies (Uchtech-Profi) at SUSU, tells us about how these projects are realized in life.

“40 years ago, they offered me leadership of the Office of Academics and Methodology. Throughout those years, I have moved away from theory and toward practical experience – towards the formation of a high-technology academic setting. This is how the scientific and manufacturing institute Academic Techniques and Technologies appeared. For all these years, my colleagues and I have been developing the nomenclature for divisions and have released textbooks that help teachers form professional knowledge and skills among students, and we have always felt the interest and support for this work from the SUSU rector, Alexander Shestakov,” says Georgiy Illarionovich.

In this time, the scientific and manufacturing institute Academic Techniques and Technologies has formed a modern material and technical base which allows them to release high-tech versions of academic technologies, even better than what they have in the east. The main unique feature of the SMI is that the list of products from the institute adhere to academic standards.

The new generation of academic techniques is a movement from receiving purely theoretical knowledge to the mastery of practical skills. This technique allows for the creation of real productive activities, immersion of student and teacher, and for the honing of professional skills.

“SMI ‘Academic Techniques and Technologies’ is a noted leader in the CIS market in the development and serial and small-batch production of innovative educational products for universities, technical colleges, colleges, and academic centers at organizations. We have our own site - labstand.ru, working in two languages. People from various countries are on the site. In a month, we receive around 350-500 orders for the creation of academic equipment. For example, just recently, we received an inquiry from Vietnam. Our constant clients are CIS countries, Mongolia, Germany, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and more,” says Georgiy Illarionovich.

Just imagine – for the last 10 years at SMI Academic Techniques and Technologies, more than 20,000 educational products have been released and implemented at institutions in Russia and countries near and far. These include academic laboratories, equipment, training stands, and more. And all of these are original developments whose scientific and methodological novelty have been verified by 73 patents, inventor certifications, and certifications of software registration. SMI Academic Techniques and Technologies not considered the best in its field by accident. The institutes products have been awarded the highest honors many times: diplomas from International Exhibitions in Moscow (The All-Russian Exhibition Center) and the Krokus-Expo computer center; at the Grand Prix as the best organization for the creation of modern academic environments – winner in a contest of innovative developments in the area of material and technical support for educational institutions; and also awards for the best developments of academic techniques for higher professional education. The company is noted by certificates and diplomas in international events in the area of academic techniques and educational technologies in Switzerland (Basel), Great Britain (London), China (Shanghai), Vietnam (Hanoi), the USA (Dubai), Astana (2010-2014) and Kiev (2011).

Today, SMI Academic Techniques and Technologies is preparing modern educational equipment which will match all of the requirements of the federal state educational standards, safety technologies, and ergonomics, and form the most comfortable space for organizing and holding lessons. This is the most dynamically developing business at SUSU, constantly gaining more products, improving the quality of their products and expanding their modern manufacturing strength.

Today, Uchtechprofi is not just an internal structure of the university focusing on supporting the university itself – it is a full institute which offers quality, varied products for many other academic institutions.

“Right now the product line for the SMI is more includes more than 5600 units. There are more than 2,800 federal, national research, supporting universities, and leading technical colleges of Russia (TOP-50) among our clients. For me, one of the main moments of recognition was the fact that our university is known around the world in part thanks to Uchtechprofi. Without question, this is the advancement of the university on the international level. SUSU and Uchtech-Profi are already synonyms,” says Georgiy Kalyagin.

160 people work in the institute. All of them, as Georgiy Illarionovich states, “like steadfast tin solders” defend their inventions, keep a finger on the pulse, and stay on top of this pedestal no matter the competition.

“We even have some clients that say, ‘We haven’t found what we need anywhere. But we know that you can make a unique product for us.’ And that’s what we do. Because we have qualified staff, a good material base, and the desire to work on our prospects. In just the last 2 months, we have already accepted 4 exclusive corporate orders. Now we are thinking about how to realize them,” explains Georgiy Kalyagin.

Among all of the manufacturers of academic technologies, SMI Academic Techniques and Technologies differs in the fact that it is the only place in Russia creating manuals for the complex support of the academic process, produces interactive and visual guides, presentations, and electronic posters. There are complexes for 140 disciplines already. With their help, practical and laboratory lessons become colorful, interactive, and memorable.

The next key area of development for the SMI is training emulators (more than 140 units) as the most effective instrument for the digitization of the academic and research process. This is supported by the high quality of structural displays and devices of technical mechanisms as well as the technological processes with the possibility of testing and realizing emergency situations.

“4 years ago, we only had 10 of these models. The Sinar Pipe Rolling Factory organized a contest for the creation of educational equipment for the operator of hot tube rolling. We have lowered the prices by two times than what our competitors offer. You could say that we have been working not only for profits but also for our own interest: can we do this? And we could – we created 9 real control remotes which are being used in plant shops. Training is held there, testing, simulation of emergency situations, and examinations for being accepted for work. This was a huge school for us. Production has taught us a lot – that we need modern specialists and what form of preparation new need,” explains Georgiy Illarionovich.

Georgiy Illarionovich and his team are working on the creation of a virtual university. They had the idea of creating a lecturer avatar that can offer lectures to students, answer questions in the middle of lectures, explain in more detail what students don’t understand. This electronic lecturer avatar will also have feedback. It will be able to conduct surveys, tests, and so on.

“We want to add not one student to the lecturer avatar, but a whole electronic group, so that students don’t feel lonely. Like an online game. This idea is quite nice for me,” says Georgiy Kalyagin.

This lecturer avatar will help support a more quality academic process for SUSU branches and distance and off-campus education. The electronic lecturer will also make education more accessible for people with limited abilities and as a whole increase students’ interest in academics. It’s possible that people who are in places of limited freedoms will also be able to study with the avatar system.

One more strategically-important goal for the SMI Academic Techniques and Technologies is the teaching is aviation training equipment. For example, the Ulyanovsk Aviation Factory has an acute shortage of qualified staff who could fly right after graduation.

“We create a laboratory structure for them and participate in the development of their material-technical base. Our partnership is with the international program of competitions WORLDskills,” says Georgiy Illarionovich.

Georgiy Kalyanin says that one more interesting area of development has appeared at SMI Academic Techniques and Technologies – working with gifted youth. Literally last year, quantoriums began to be founded in Russia – these are technoparks for children from five to eighteen. It’s a huge structured territory where children are taught for free.

In each division, the children work on their own kind of activity. In the IT-quantum, they program and learn to protect data on the internet; in the bioquantum they study microbiology and biotechnology; and in the aeroquantum they get to know about the creation of drones.

The idea of quantoriums is that children, while playing, understand breakthrough technologies and learn how to utilize theoretical thinking in practice.

“The main conditions for creating these quantoriums is having intellectual partners. In the Chelyabinsk region, only South Ural State University can serve as the partner, serving as the leader of education in their region. Now, the leadership of our university is forming such a project. This area of work allows us to increase our applicants and students who will become researchers, builders, and engineers. They can work in technical work and industry,” said Georgiy Illarionovich, sharing his plans.

This means that SMI Academic Techniques and Technologies at SUSU will not accept what they have already achieved, but confidently look to the future and search for new horizons for developing professional education. 

Yulia Uzmova, Photo by Oleg Igoshin
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