The period of educational training and internships is wrapping up at South Ural State University. Within the frameworks of agreements with big companies of the Chelyabinsk Region and other regions, students obtain work experience at real productions during summer season. In particular, students of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics took internship both in Chelyabinsk and in other cities across Russia.
The SUSU Faculty of Chemistry was established in September of 2007. After the university’s reorganization, it became an important part of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in 2016. The Faculty trains highly qualified specialists in chemistry, chemical technology, ecology, energy- and resource saving. Today, it also comprises a Department of Ecology and Chemical Engineering, and one of the fields of student training is Chemical Engineering.
Stationary and visiting internships for Bachelor’s, Master’s and postgraduate students in the Chemical Engineering programme are based at the leading enterprises of Chelyabinsk and the Chelyabinsk Region, such as OOO Mechel-Koks (MECHEL), OOO Carbon and Composite Materials Plant (UMATEX), OOO Donkarb Grafit, AO ENERGOPROM – Chelyabinskiy elektrodnyi zavod (Chelyabinsk Electrode Plant), OA Chelyabinskiy elektrometallurgicheskiy kombinat (Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgy Plant), OOO Magistral, AO Elektromashina, AO Kopeysk Machine-Building Plant, AO Zlatoustovskiy mashinostroitelnyi zavod (Zlatoust Machine-Building Plant), OA Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant, AO Miasskiy mashinostroitelnyi zavod (Miass Machine-Building Plant), Production Association Mayak, JSC Academician V.P. Makeyev State Rocket Centre, and more.
For the first time this year, Associate Professor of the Department of Ecology and Chemical Engineering, Candidate of Sciences (Chemistry) Kseniya Smolyakova has organized on-site internships for students of the Chemical Engineering programme at the following enterprises: OOO LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez (Perm, the Perm Region), FGUP SKTB Tekhnolog (Saint Petersburg, the Leningrad Region), and Iriklinskaya GRES Branch of JSC Inter RAO — Electric Power Plants (Energetik settl., Novoorsk District, the Orenburg Region).
With support from the Committee for Youth Entrepreneurship of OPORA RUSSIA All-Russian Non-Governmental Organization of Small and Medium Business represented Vice Chairman Oleg Ille, internship at the production site of ChelSi paving slabs plant (Chelyabinsk) was organized for the first time.
In the course of taking their internships, students learn how to work in a team, unlock their talents to self-education and self-discipline, obtain the skills of carrying out a technological process in compliance with the regulations, and skills of using technical means for measuring the main process parameters, properties of raw materials and products; skills of working with normative documents on quality, standardization and certification of goods and products; learn the elements of economic analysis in practical activities; obtain the skills of analysing raw materials, materials and end products, and skills of processing the analysis results and performing various professional tasks.
Photo: Arseniy Zabelin and Petr Grebnev, ЕТ-233 group students at the production site of ChelSi paving slabs plant, Chelyabinsk
The future specialists in the field of chemical engineering learned about their professional activities during their internship at ChelSi Holding, which comprises several production sites: asphalt concrete plant, concrete mixer station, paving slabs plant, bitumen facilities, quality control service (laboratory), electronic engineers service, and machine operators service.
“Future programmers, electric engineers and chemical-process engineers come to take their internships. Roadworks production is a complex technological process, and a result of team work. In their turn, chemical-process engineers are involved in adjusting the composition of construction mixes, the state requirements for which are changed from time to time. We also hold internships for students with the knowledge of control-and-measuring sensors and instrument engineering. We have many pneumatic valves, strain gauges, relays and other devices, with which students work,” shared foreman at ChelSi plant production Anton Deryabin-Menshikov.
Photo: Anton Deryabin-Menshikov, foreman of a production site at ChelSi plant, Chelyabinsk
SUSU students of ЕТ-233 group Arseniy Zabelin and Petr Grebnev took part in works on production of stone-sand mixture at the Holding’s asphalt concrete plant. Here there were provided with information on the plant’s capacity, which amounts to 200 tonnes of mixture per hour; and learned which materials and of which fraction composition are used for production of construction mixes, how drying drums work, how bitumen is used; and much more. All of that helps understand which materials are used in road laying, and how their quality influences the durability of road pavements, urban environment comfort, and ecology condition.
Second-year student of the SUSU Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Arseniy Zabelin shared his impressions on taking the internship:
“We worked as spare-hand laboratory assistants. We were conducting various research studies on cement, and helping at the workshop. I didn’t have any such experience, and everything related to cement was new to me. I really liked performing different testing of materials and mixes. In general, I got an understanding of what it’s like to work at a plant. It was a helpful experience!”
Also, students of the Faculty of Chemistry took their internship in the city of Perm at OOO LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez, one of the major and high-technology oil refining enterprises in Russia. This enterprise is located in the east of the European Russia, five kilometres off the city of Perm. OOO LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez refines around 13 million tonnes of crude hydrocarbons per year and manufactures a wide range of products.
“During my internship in Perm, I learned how a crude oil distillation unit works. Our supervisor told us about the unit’s structure and demonstrated how apparatus work in real conditions. As a result, I obtained priceless experience of working at an oil refining production and understood the principles of oil refining. I’m very happy that I got this opportunity to take my internships namely here,” stressed student of the Faculty of Chemistry Danil Nezametdinov.
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Photo: on the right, ЕТ-233 group student Danil Nezametdinov with the АВТ-1,2 crude oil distillation unit headman of OOO LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez (Perm, the Perm Region) Aygiz Sharipov
Students of ЕТ-233 group Anna Shabalina and Alena Begunova took their internship at FGUP SKTB Tekhnolog, Saint Petersburg. FGUP SKTB Tekhnolog is one of the leading Russian enterprises in the field of chemistry and technology of energy-saturated substances and materials, low-tonnage high-end technologies of fine organic synthesis of various compound substances for different sectors of industry and civilian economy. In the course of their internship, the students were studying a number of issues related to production of surfactants, which are characterized with antimicrobial activity against a wide range of microorganisms: raw materials base of the production, current technological processes of the production subdivision, and physical-and-chemical processes of producing octenidine and 4-octylaminopyridine.
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Photo: Alena Begunova and Anna Shabalina (on the right) during their internship at FGUP SKTB Tekhnolog, Saint Petersburg
Student Anastasiya Dorofeeva took her internship in the central chemical laboratory of Iriklinskaya GRES Branch of JSC Inter RAO — Electric Power Plants (Energetik settl., Novoorsk District, the Orenburg Region).
The laboratory is functioning in order to ensure precise fulfilment of tasks on testing and to provide Iriklinskaya GRES Branch of JSC Inter RAO — Electric Power Plants with accurate analytical information on the condition of air in the work zone of production rooms; on the quality of fuel (gas, fuel oil residue); on the quality of fuel oils (turbine oil, transformer oil); on analysing the air in the work zone of production rooms in order to control the quality of air in the areas where employees work; on analysing turbine oil, transformer oil, compressor oil, fire-resistant oil of heat-engineering institute; on analysing fuel of gas and fuel oil residue.
Anastasiya Dorofeeva noted: “In the course of my internship I worked with wonderful and welcoming people, with professionals, who managed to teach me a lot. For instance, I studied the laboratory methods and techniques of analysing the density of oil and petroleum products; learned how to use the necessary chemical reagents, materials and apparatus to perform quantitative measurement of the concentration of water in petroleum products, food products and other products. I’m very happy that thanks to the support from my university I could take the internship at Iriklinskaya GRES Branch of JSC Inter RAO — Electric Power Plants, and I hope that I get a job there after I graduate.”
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In case of further collaboration with the new enterprises, the Department of Ecology and Chemical Engineering plans on organizing joint works with students both within internships and within preparing final qualification research and project papers. Studying of these issues continues at the enterprises, with which the university signed long-term agreements. The results of this research will be published in the leading journals indexed in Web of Science and Scopus databases. Fruitful work in the field of chemistry engineering leads to high demand for the Department’s graduates in all spheres of industry. Such collaboration is beneficial both for enterprises in terms of training professional staff, and for the university in terms of ensuring job placements for its graduates.