The official delegation also included the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Natalia Tretiak and the Head of the Republic of Karelia Aleksandr Khudilainen. The guests learned about the work of the Innovation and Technology Center from the acting Rector of Petrozavodsk State University Sergey Korzhov and the Head of the Directorate for Innovation and Production Olga Derbeneva, and met the directors of multiple innovation centers and laboratories of the IT-park.

The IT-park was created in 2005 and is unique center for the Northwest of Russia.

Today 400 people work at the IT-park. Here the employees develop software, some of it under the orders of large foreign companies, do research, develop information system for application in various areas. The ideas and innovations of the University are used by Karelian, Russian and foreign enterprises.

Maria Davydova, the Director of the Resource Center for Scientific and Technological Creativity of Students, told about the work of her Center. Presently, the Center is implementing a large project of developing STEM-cluster of additional education for the children of the Republic of Karelia. The project is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia and is implemented jointly with the Republic’s educational institutions, as well as the world’s leading IT-companies.

The Center organizes classes for schoolchildren of the 1st – 11th grades, who will one day become programmers, physicists, chemists, and engineers. They run their first experiments under the guidance of the students of Petrozavodsk State University, who act as their mentors.

Aleksandr Sofronov, pupil of the School No. 27 of the city of Petrozavodsk, presented the guests his project “Walking Robot powered by LEGO Mindstorms EV3”, which had been showcased at Russian exhibitions.

The Director of the Student Business Incubator told the guests about creative initiatives of students, youth innovative projects, Intellectual Games Festival and summer camps held at PetrSU.

The Vice-Rector for Discipline and Social Work Vasily Katarov and the Chairman of Student Union Aleksei Butenko described the unique youth projects implemented by the student’s organizations of the University.

For example, students of the Faculty of Philology of PetrSU Anna Viarieva and Andrei Sukhov have become the Russian language ambassadors. The “Russian Language Ambassadors” is a project of Pushkin State Russian Language Institute that is aimed at promoting the Russian language and culture in Russia and abroad and is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia under the Program for Development of Student Organizations. This year PetrSU was granted the status of the key university in the international program “Russian Language Ambassadors in the World”.

The guests were keen to learn about the remarkable student expeditions to Kamchatka, dog sledding tours with renowned traveler Fiodor Koniukhov, the expeditions that were still in project, search movement, and sports and patriotic camps. At the time of the visit, the sports and health camp Shotozero of Petrozavodsk State University was hosting the All-Russian Sports and Patriotic Camp. The participants of the camp were young activists, leaders of student sports clubs from all over Russia. The participants reached the standards “Studzachet ASSK Rossii”, which is a set of exercises developed for the All-Russian Physical Culture and Sports Complex GTO (Ready for Labor and Defense). The camp hosted tournaments in football, volleyball, badminton, grenade throwing and air gun shooting, walking tours and sports orienteering. On behalf of the participants of the sports camp the guests were given presents with the logo of the event.

Then the Chairman of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin and the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Natalia Tretiak got to know the innovations of young scientists developed at the innovation centers and small enterprises of the IT-park of PetrSU: developments in the field of nanoelectronics and intellectual tool engineering, fish farming equipment, science-driven import-substituting products for agriculture and fish farming.

Aleksandra Kekkonen, the senior research assistant of the Budget Monitoring Center, presented the projects in the field of monitoring social and economic dynamics and staffing requirements for state organizations and subjects of the Russian Federation.

Information on the activities and developments of the Programmers Art Club and the Automation Systems Center were presented by Vladislav Sokolov.

The Engineering Center of PetrSU, established in 2015 with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, hosted a presentation of projects in forestry, agricultural and transport machine engineering, which are implemented jointly with industrial partners ZAO Petrozavodskmash and the Onega Tractor Plant.

The Center of Efficient House-Building presented innovative technologies for low-rise wooden housing construction that are already being used by customers in Karelia and Russia.

The guests were also shown virtual simulator for harvester operators, unique teaching equipment that uses high technology for training operators of the most advanced machines. Sergey Naryshkin himself worked with the manipulator as an operator.