On 18 December, the Multifunctional Complex “Mining” of the St Petersburg Mining University hosted the XXVI St Petersburg Assembly of Young Scientists and Specialists. The event is held annually with the goal of popularizing science and demonstrating the best projects of budding St Petersburg researchers.

Traditionally, the participants in the assembly are the winners of grant competitions for students, PhD students, young scientists and young candidates of science, as well as students who are recipients of personal scholarships from the Government of St Petersburg. Competition is organized by the Committee on Science and Higher Education.

The best young scientists of St Petersburg were greeted by Vice Governor Vladimir Knyaginin on behalf of the city Governor Aleksandr Beglov.

Our university management was represented by Vice-Rector for Research Evgeny Korolev and Deputy Head of the Division for Scientific Work Ekaterina Kukoleva.

At the ceremonial meeting of the assembly, the winners of the grant competition for students, PhD students of universities, industrial and academic institutions, competitive selection for the provision of subsidies to young scientists, young candidates of sciences of universities, industrial and academic institutes located in St Petersburg, and scholarship holders of the Government of St Petersburg were honored.

This year, 17 representatives of our university received 18 awards.

Grants from the Government of St Petersburg for students and PhD students went to:

• Kirill Anufriev, fifth-year specialist's student of the Faculty of Automobile and Road Building;
• Pavel Bakusov, senior lecturer at the Department of Information Systems and Technologies;
• Alena Vedernikova, senior lecturer at the Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions;
• Aleksandra Glukhova, associate professor at the Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions;
• Andrey Zima, second-year master's student of the Faculty of Architecture;
• Roman Kozakov, bachelor's graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Management;
• Timofey Semenyuk, fifth-year specialist's student of the Faculty of Automobile and Road Building;
• Elena Sorokina, senior lecturer at the Department of Transport Systems, PhD student of the Faculty of Automobile and Road Building;
• Yury Tsvetkov, senior lecturer at the Department of Construction Economics and Housing and Utility Infrastructure.

The competition for subsidies for young scientists and candidates of science was won by Aleksey Marusin, associate professor at the Department of Transport Maintenance.

For high achievements in educational, research, creative and social activities, scholarships from the Government of St Petersburg in 2023–2024. were awarded to:

• Anastasia Atamuratova, second-year master's student of the Faculty of Architecture;
• Glafira Bachmanova, fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services;
• Diana Voystrik, fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Forensics and Law in Construction and Transport;
• Andrey Zima, second-year master's student of the Faculty of Architecture;
• Igor Mikhnevich, third-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Automobile and Road Building;
• Sergey Rogulev, fifth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Architecture;
• Karina Sarkisova, third-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Automobile and Road Building;
• Nikita Tikhonov, fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services.

Andrey Zima, who was awarded two awards, said that he received a grant for a scientific project entitled “Development of socio-cultural spaces with cultural and leisure infrastructure facilities in the territories of the peripheral zone of the core of the St Petersburg agglomeration as the basis for creating a comfortable urban environment.” The student’s supervisor is Associate Professor at the Department of Urban Planning Mikhail Vilensky.

Andrey Zima is working on this topic as part of writing his master's thesis at the Department of Urban Planning. He studied the problem of the formation of cultural and leisure infrastructure facilities on the periphery of the city and the features of peripheral territories, including sociocultural ones. The author considers the development of sociocultural spaces as one of the priority measures for the formation of a comfortable urban environment in peripheral territories.

Andrey Zima received a scholarship from the Government of St Petersburg for scientific and creative achievements in his field of activity. Among the scientific achievements of the master's student are scientific publications in journals included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission of Russia and publications in journals indexed in the RSCI, participation in international and all-Russian architectural and urban planning conferences. Creative achievements included victories and prizes at international and national competitions of final qualifying works and course projects. Andrey received most of the awards for his final qualifying work “Comprehensive development of the territory of a peripheral region of the St Petersburg agglomeration using the example of the village of Novosaratovka.” In addition, this year Andrey participated in the “Student of the Year” competition, held by the Committee on Science and Higher Education, in the category “Best in Scientific and Technical Creativity”.

“I would like to thank our university for the opportunity to participate in these competitions; it is a great honor for me!” – Andrey Zima said.

Alena Vedernikova, senior lecturer at the Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions, again won the competition for young scientists this year with the topic “Improving the calculation of pipe-concrete structural elements.” Alena Andreevna continued last year’s project to develop a program for calculating pipe concrete elements using the inverse numerical and numerical-analytical methods, developed the application interface and published two articles on the topic. “This year’s Assembly, as in the past, was organized very well: I would like to express my gratitude to both the organizers and those who directly helped us navigate the building of the St Petersburg Mining University, issued diplomas, took photographs, and conducted the award ceremony,” she noted.

As part of the assembly, an exhibition of the achievements of young people in the scientific and educational sphere of St Petersburg was held. The SPbGASU stand was represented by Andrey Nikulin, head of the Department of Technosphere Safety, and student Dmitry Melnichenko.

SPbGASU demonstrated the virtual reality program “TrudlabVR” and the computer training program “Smart Labor”. The use of virtual reality technology allows students to be immersed in a digital twin of the Smart Labor training site to complete training tasks.

In addition, as a federal innovation platform, our university presented research results as part of the innovative educational project “Modern educational technologies to ensure occupational safety in the construction industry”.