The first-in-Chelyabinsk Aerospace Engineering class has opened at South Ural State University. Its students are high-school pupils of Educational Centre No.5. A ceremony of their initiation as young engineers of the SUSU Faculty of Aerospace Engineering has been organized for them.
During the ceremony, the pupils were awarded their attendee cards and SUSU academic record books. For these children, these are their first university documents and an important step towards their future status of students of our region’s leading university.
“Now, you are at the beginning of a big journey. In the Aerospace Engineering class, you will be engaged in project activity and working on various types of developments. On our part, we will be striving to make these projects most practice-oriented, so that those could be of interest to our university’s industrial partners,” noted Dean of the SUSU Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Ruslan Peshkov. “The first stages may be difficult: it will take time to form a project and obtain a tangible result. But it is namely now that you will gain the competences that will help you achieve this result. It’s important to have patience and use the obtained knowledge in your projects. In the future, you will be able to present the results of this work at conferences, contests and other events, thus forming your own portfolio. I’m sure that this experience will influence both your choice of profession and your career path in the future.”
The collaboration between our university and Educational Centre No.5 gained progress in April of 2026: SUSU and the Centre signed an agreement aimed at training school pupils in Aerospace Engineering programmes. This document implies the participation of the university teaching staff in the educational process, holding of practical classes, and regular attending of the university teaching and research laboratories by the pupils.
The joint programme has started already this year. For the Aerospace Engineering class students, a special curriculum was developed that helps step outside the school programme and learn about real engineering tasks.
The school pupils will learn the basics of aerodynamics and flight dynamics, theory of jet-propulsion engines, specifics of designing space apparatus and launch vehicles, as well as about the materials used in rocket and space equipment. Much attention is paid to the development of practical skills: children will master 3D modeling in Kompas 3D software, learn about the possibilities of 3D printing, and will start working on their own project tasks under the guidance of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering.
“The main task of this special class is not only to provide children with new knowledge, but also to significantly broaden their worldview and the understanding of their future profession. Project activity will allow them to undergo all the stages of working on a real task and gain their first professional experience. For us, it is important that by the moment they finish school, these children were able to self-consciously answer the question whether they really wish to connect their future with Aerospace Engineering,” shared class adviser of Aerospace Engineering class 10-2 Tatiana Griaznova.
As part of this academic programme, high school pupils will regularly attend the SUSU Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, work in the university computer classes and laboratories, learn more about modern equipment and instructional replicas of space equipment. Practical work will allow to see how school-programme knowledge can be applied to solving real engineering tasks.
“We want to provide children with basic skills and the initial understanding of working in Aerospace Engineering, so that they could try themselves in this field while still at school. Also, school pupils will visit the Space Technology Education Centre, where they will be able to see the scale of the designed products and have a better understanding of which objects they will be working with in the future. The most important thing is to spark interest to the engineering profession among children and make them want to develop in the rocket and space sector,” stressed the Head of the Asteroid Youth Design Bureau Dariia Malykh.
In the course of the academic year, school pupils will be working on their own projects and will present the results of their project activity at science-to-practice conferences at the regional and federal levels, including at the Conference on Asteroid Safety held at SUSU every year. Participation in such events will become for the young engineers an opportunity to gain their first experience in public presentation of their own developments and to meet representatives of the university and professional community.
Creation of the first-in-Chelyabinsk Aerospace Engineering class and development of the joint programme of SUSU and Educational Centre No.5 become an important element of training the future industry-related specialists. While still at school, children get an opportunity to immerse themselves into engineering environment, work with modern technologies and equipment, and gradually build their own academic path: from their first project tasks to studying at the SUSU Faculty of Aerospace Engineering.