Russia's Ministry of Education and Science supported NSTU NETI application to create two 250 million rubles worth advanced youth scientific laboratories within the national project "Science" for 5 years. The terms of the contest require that the head of the laboratory should hava a Candidate of Science degree and be not older than 35 years or a Doctor of Science degree and be not older than 49 years. The laboratory staff should consist of University undergraduate and graduate students in equal proportions. Following the agreement, the research started in 2020 and will last for 5 years.
The first laboratory will be engaged in modeling, data processing and development of high-tech software. Marina Persova, Professor of the Applied Mathematics Department, will head the project.
The project is aimed at creating new methods of data processing and optimizing technologies, including those related to large volumes of recorded data. Such volumes occur at building accurate digital models of complex physical processes, i.e., while analyzing data from mineral exploration or testing new materials.
"Building digital models of complex physical environments entails high computational complexity, which imposes serious requirements on computing equipment and needs time. Our task is to find and work out new approaches to their construction that will significantly increase their adequacy and at the same time will not require ultra-high computational costs. Methods for building models and optimizing calculations will be largely universal, but we already see the final areas of application: technologies for aerogeophysical survey, which are characterized by very large volumes of recorded and processed data, technologies for extracting hard-to-recover (viscous and super-viscous) oil and technologies for creating new composite materials," says Marina Persova. Recently the staff of the of Applied Mathematics Department won a 6 million rubles grant from the Russian Science Foundation to create software for processing data in the search for minerals by unmanned aerial vehicles: https://www.nstu.ru/news/news_more?idnews=123122.
The other laboratory will study extreme impacts effects on the materials structure. NSTU NETI scientists will study welding and hardening of metals by explosion, metals melting using electron beam and laser effects, and other extreme methods of materials processing.
"Modern scientists believe that it is extreme methods of materials processing that make it possible to form new structural and phase states and obtain materials with new properties which are impossible to achieve by "classical" manufacturing processes. However, the processes of structure formation using many of these technologies are still poorly described. This is due to a number of reasons. A large number of experimental data were obtained relatively long ago: 30-40 years ago, and sometimes even earlier. These data were obtained using equipment whose capabilities were significantly inferior to modern machinery. From the point of view of fundamental science, these methods are of particular interest, since they allow to relatively easy obtain new materials with unusual properties, provided there is appropriate research tools and researchers qualification," says Ivan Bataev. the head of the project, Associate Professor of Materials Science in Mechanical Engineering Department.
Experiments with extreme impact effects (for example, welding by explosion) cannot be performed under normal conditions due to safety requirements, so the laboratory will work closely with institutes of the SB RAS that have the appropriate licenses, as well as use new approaches for mathematical modeling of the corresponding phenomena.
The latest equipment is assumed to help NSTU NETI scientists obtain the missing world science knowledge about the behavior of materials under extreme conditions and create breakthrough technologies for processing metals and their alloys, which will radically increase their strength and wear resistance.
Additionally, the new laboratory will be aimed at research of materials using synchrotron radiation at scientific stations of the SKIF synchrotron which is under construction within the national project "Science" in cooperation with specialists of the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, SB RAS. The high radiation intensity of the new synchrotron will allow studying the processes of materials structural change in greater detail. The existing research methods, for example, classical x-ray diffractometers cannot provide this data. At the end of 2019, a team of young scientists from NSTU NETI won a grant from the RFBR to study the evolution of structure and properties in the surface layers of rail steels during friction using synchrotron radiation: https://nauka.tass.ru/nauka/7009943.
Previously, Russia's Ministry of Education and Science supported the application of scientists from NSTU NETI and IFPM SB RAS to create the first Russian industrial apparatus for friction welding with mixing: https://www.nstu.ru/news/news_more?idnews=120542.
National project "Science" implies the creation of new laboratories by 2024, 30 % of which will be headed by young promising researchers. In total, 900 such laboratories will be created, and their team will consist of young specialists who would be able to participate more actively in research projects while studying at universities. About 200 laboratories have already been created since the start of the national project. By 2024, according to the national project, the share of researchers under 39 years of age against the total number of scientists should grow to 50.1 %, i.e., adding 35,000 people to today's figure of 43.3 %.