As a part of project-based learning NSTU students have made a kinetic sculpture and are at the closing stage of making the cargo convertiplane drone and the face recognition system.
NSTU introduced the first developments made by students as a part of project activity started in September. All projects available can be searched at a special site. A student can choose a project and cooperate with the students of other faculties to solve the practical engineering, socio-cultural and scientific problems.
In the late October the students of Mechanics and Technologies Faculty of NSTU made a dynamic sculpture with an unusual visual format: when the sculpture spins the viewer sees an optical illusion of letters ‘MTF” and ‘FB’. The sculpture is powered mechanically and can rotate for 15 minutes. The dynamic sculpture format can serve as a new type of art objects in the interior of culture and youth centers or any other public places.
"It is one thing to get a credit for the subject; it is quite another to go through all the production processes, to find out the price of your design mistakes. For example, if you foul a series of parts because of a bad drawing, the delivery of the project will be considerably late. The project allows students to feel responsibility for their decisions, which is an invaluable experience for them", — says the project manager, Associate Professor Vadim Skeeba..
Most projects are currently in the process of development. The students of the Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering are working on the face recognition system that will help identify the person by looking at the images from the security cameras. This project could be used in security systems.
The students of the Aircraft Faculty are making the convertiplane drone from a scratch. Its advantage over the regular drone is longer flight ability and higher speed. The drone can also follow the preset trajectory, pick up small weights and work as a delivery service.
“In September the teachers from all faculties have compiled a project bank and provided descriptions of the projects, expected results and goals necessary for achieving of those results. Then students could choose a project they wanted and signed in the program. The full period for working on a project is varied from one to four semesters,” says Olga Kislitsina, the head of the NSTU project activity think tank.
At the moment the project activity is an elective for three- and four-year students. Each project has a head, a supervisor and a consultant. 151 projects are being worked on, with about a thousand students being a part of them. In the end of the year an all-university event is planned. There, the students can present and defend the results of the project teamwork.
The purpose of the project training is to give students the opportunity of teamwork, to try their hand in creating a real product and to obtain professional knowledge. This will let future specialists shorten the adaptation period once they start working.
“We are open for enterprises that can formulate the topics of their own projects and carry out those projects with the help of our students. Outside organizations can be initiators or clients of a project. That is exactly what we are aiming at,” says Sergey Brovanov, NSTU vice rector.
