This year, the project involves 200 future engineers. Among them are 50 students from Russian universities with advanced engineering schools, 50 participants from Belarusian universities, 20 students from BRICS countries (5 from South Africa, 15 from India), and 80 participants from Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Uzbekistan. For students from Armenia and Uzbekistan, this is their first participation in the "Winter University."
Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Mogilevsky, addressed the participants: "Today in Russia, over 30% of all students are future architects, nuclear specialists, ship and aircraft designers, IT specialists, and engineers in various industrial fields. Now, you are also part of this large international team."
The "Winter University" program includes educational, project-based, and cultural components. Educational and project activities are carried out across six specialized tracks:
"Virtual and Augmented Reality";
"Cybersecurity";
"Digital Signal Processing";
"Unmanned Aerial Systems and Satellite Technologies";
"Development of Systems Based on Neural Network Technologies";
"Information Modeling Technologies."
The cultural and leisure program will introduce participants to Veliky Novgorod. It will include tours of Yaroslav's Court, visits to the Vitoslavlitsy Museum of Wooden Architecture, the Novgorod Kremlin, masterclasses, sports events, an informal music gathering ("kvartirnik"), and an intellectual quiz.
Deputy Mayor of Veliky Novgorod, Sergey Penyaz, noted: "Veliky Novgorod is a city that has always been on trend... Today, together with NovSU, we are creating a new ecosystem—'City-University.' And I believe it is very important that NovSU has become the venue for the 'Winter University.'"
Over the course of two weeks, participants will work in international teams and develop engineering solutions in their chosen tracks. On December 5, they will present their results at a demo day. Experts from the regional radio-electronic industry will serve as judges, including representatives from PJSC "Akron," NPC "Akron Engineering," NPP "Planeta-Argall," JSC "OKB-Planeta," JSC "NPK 'SPP,'" JSC "Elsi," and TsNII "Tsiklon."
The opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister of Education of the Novgorod Region, Natalya Uralskaya; Deputy Director of the Novgorod Center for Innovation and Industrial Development, Irina Demina; Vice-Rector for Educational Activities at NovSU, Natalya Fedotova; and Director of the Center for Assessment and Development of Supra-Professional Competencies at NovSU, Stepan Malakhov.
The "Winter University" is held at the NovSU Advanced Engineering School "Distributed Control Systems for Technological Processes" as part of the national project "Youth and Children."