Stanislav Kazarin

Vice Governor of St Petersburg Stanislav Kazarin visited SPbGASU. He toured the Laboratory of Digital Building Information Models and took part in the round table "Implementation of innovative educational projects of the St Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering."  

The participants of the round table were representatives of the university top management, professional partners, students. The meeting was moderated by the SPbGASU First Vice-Rector Svetlana Golovina.

The SPbGASU Vice-Rector for Academic Work Sergey Mikhailov spoke about the university, emphasizing that the formation of digital competencies is a priority in the university's activities. For the period from 2022 to 2026, SPbGASU has gained the status of a federal innovation platform for two projects. At the same time, all its achievements are the result of interaction with industry partners who participate in the development of educational programs and practical training of students, offer topics for final qualification works and course projects, participate in the state final certification and scientific developments.

According to the vice-rector, SPbGASU aims to interact with state authorities and relevant committees, to expand targeted and project-based learning. For example, universities have recently acquired the right to implement programs that provide for the acquisition of two qualifications at the same time. Therefore, a request from the professional community for demanded combinations of two qualifications is necessary. The university is interested in creating examination centers for assessing qualifications, so that the graduate has not only a diploma of higher education, but also confirmation of his qualifications from the professional community. In addition, SPbGASU is eager to act as a platform for a dialogue between experts, for holding congress and exhibition events, and to do everything to increase the prestige of construction professions. “We invite partners to participate in our career guidance events - because who, if not them, knows what kind of specialists are needed in the real sector of the economy!” - said Sergey Mikhailov.

Director  of the SPbGASU Laboratory of Digital Building Information Models Denis Nizhegorodtsev informed about its work. The laboratory was established in 2020 to develop software in the field of information modeling, including virtual and augmented reality, to launch pilot projects, test new methods, developments in the field of technologies of information modeling (TIM) in construction, to coordinate the university's educational, design and scientific activities in the field of TIM. It has computer classes for 80 workstations, sets of virtual reality glasses, tablets for working with augmented reality technology, a holographic class with individual workstations and a common demonstration holographic table, foreign and Russian software.

Denis Nizhegorodtsev spoke about the work of the laboratory, including projects carried out jointly with industrial partners: St Petersburg State Budgetary Institution "Energy Saving Center", NOPRIZ, CJSC "Wizardsoft". On the instructions of the Government of St Petersburg, the concept of the planning project for Kronstadt quarter No. 18 was developed.

A special report was devoted to the innovative educational project (IEP) “Innovative Methods for Forming Digital Professional Competences of Students and Construction Industry Specialists”, which is being implemented by SPbGASU as part of the federal innovation platform in 2022–2026. During the project, the laboratory organizes training courses, advanced training sessions and a BIM championship - a competition of student teams to design the same building in a limited time in an information modeling environment. Over the years of the championship, more than 15 universities and colleges have taken part in it. Residential buildings, office centers, hotels, kindergartens and transport hubs were designed as competitive tasks. More information about the championship at: bim.spbgasu.ru

Another important development within the framework of the IEP is the team defence of groups' graduation TIM projects. Students develop their FQWs in inter-competence project groups as assigned by organizations in the real sector of the economy. The work of each student becomes part of a team diploma TIM project, which the development group defends before an expert commission.

The implementation of the project includes the development of an electronic information educational environment using a common data environment for design. ASCON is the industrial partner of this project. The expected result is an increase in the digital and professional competence of graduates and teachers, obtaining a synergistic effect in improving the quality of education from combining the efforts of all university faculties, developing the electronic information and educational environment of the university, and increasing the demand for SPbGASU graduates in the labour market.

Denis Nizhegorodtsev reported on additional professional programs in the field of TIM, on the participation of the university in the project "Digital Engineer of PTD (production and technical department)", which was organized with the participation of the Moscow Department of Construction, Moscow State Civil Engineering University, the Amethyst Group company, on the VI International scientific and practical conference "BIM-modeling in the tasks of construction and architecture", which will take place on 19–21 April.

Head of the Department of Technosphere Safety, Director of the Innovative Educational Complex "Smart Labour" training site Andrey Nikulin made a presentation on the innovative educational project "Modern educational technologies to ensure labour safety in the construction industry" (2022–2026). The purpose of this project is to create an innovative methodology that forms a safe behavioral model for students and workers on construction sites.

The tool for developing a safe behavioral model of workers was the Smart Labour training site, which includes installations of dangerous situations in case of incorrect actions and the same events while observing safety measures, software packages for training specialists of various categories, a virtual test site - computer training programs based on VR- technologies "Training workers in the construction industry in measures to ensure labour safety."

In 2022, the VI Scientific and practical conference with international participation "Safety in Construction" took place, eight field seminars were held at the training site. In January 2023, at the Smart Labour training site, practical classes on labour safety were held for students under the additional professional program "Industrial and Civil Engineering".

An application was submitted to the Ministry of Labour of the Russian Federation for accreditation of SPbGASU as an organization providing services in the field of labour protection; the work plan for 2023 includes the development of the Trudlab launcher and the project website; acquisition, installation and launch of the Vysota training site into the educational process; holding a test TIM-championship "TIM in labour protection in construction"; digitalization of the learning process and testing for knowledge of labour protection requirements when working at height, and much more.

Omar Shakshak, a specialist of the Smart Labour trainig site, a PhD student of the Department of Computer Science, spoke about the Trudlab launcher. This is a software shell for Windows OS, which allows only authorized users to run Smart Labour CPC. Omar Shakshak, who heads the team of IT developers, shared his future plans, including the implementation of a launcher for the Linux operating system, and obtaining three patents for the programs being developed.

Eduard Savelyev, Head of the Division of Information Technology Infrastructure, Lev Zadumkin, Leading System Administrator of SPbGASU, and Ekaterina Kholuyanova, a PhD student of the Faculty of Architecture and head of the working group, spoke about the university mobile application. The application allows you to easily find the class schedule, get information about the location of the audience on an interactive map, and view the teachers' profiles posted on the official website of the university. After testing the application by SPbGASU students and its successful moderation by platforms such as Google Play and Appstore, it is available for download to all users on the website app.spbgasu.ru

The participants of the Round table exchanged views on topical issues of digitalization and discussed the prospects for cooperation. Stanislav Kazarin noted the great role of SPbGASU in the formation of a new engineering school, bringing together the efforts of all market participants in the process of building a digital model of St Petersburg, and also emphasized the city's interest in cooperation with the university.