SPbGASU summed up the results of the qualifying round of the student league of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN" in the direction of "Architecture, engineering, construction and housing and public utilities". The defense of case solutions and the award ceremony for the winners took place on 12 March.

CASE-IN was created 13 years ago to promote engineering and technical education and to train future highly qualified specialists. The organizers of the championship are the "Nadezhnaya Smena" (Reliable shift) Foundation, the Youth Forum of Mining Leaders Non-Commercial Partnership, AstraLogika LLC, and the presidential platform Russia – the Land of Opportunities. The championship is included in the Science of Winning initiative of the Decade of Science and Technology in Russia. The qualifying round at SPbGASU was organized by the Center for Student Entrepreneurship and Career of our university.

According to Marina Malyutina, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy, SPbGASU has been participating in CASE-IN since 2019. According to Marina Viktorovna, this is a fundamental and important decision for an engineering university. Students show good results, the number of those wishing to participate is growing year after year. In the future, they are offered practice, internship, and employment. Previously, the university participated in the "Engineering design" competency, and the tasks were not entirely specialized. Now, thanks to the Metropolis company, SPbGASU students have the opportunity to apply the specialized knowledge they receive at the university.

Artem Korolev, director of the "Nadezhnaya Smena" charity foundation and founder of the CASE-IN International Engineering Championship, shared his plans for the 13th season in a video message: this year, there will be school, student, and special leagues. 280 schools are expected to participate in the school league. More than 220 universities are expected in the student league, 80 of which will host the in-person qualifying round. A total of 18,500 participants are expected – schoolchildren, students, young professionals, experts, mentors, and curators. The theme of the 13th season is Technological Innovations.

The first deputy general director of the autonomous non-profit organization "Russia - the Land of Opportunities" Gennady Guryanov spoke about the successes of the project in a video message: during its existence, the project has united more than 120 thousand schoolchildren, students and young professionals from Russia and neighboring states. Since 2019, together with the presidential platform "Russia - the Land of Opportunities", the project has provided young people with opportunities for personal, professional and career growth.

Eight teams spent 21 days solving a case from Metropolis, the initiator of the direction and strategic partner of the championship. Each team brought together students from different directions. Under the guidance of mentors, future architects, builders, and designers developed a hotel and tourist complex in a natural area. The results of their work were assessed by an expert commission, which included representatives of Metropolis and SPbGASU.

Thejury assessed the architectural and design solutions, power supply systems, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and general requirements (technology, fire safety, energy efficiency, automation systems). The speakers' fluency in professional terminology, their ability to express and justify their opinions, the clarity and understandability of the slide structure, the logicality of their answers to questions, etc. were also taken into account. After the defenses, the experts provided targeted feedback to the teams assigned to them: they highlighted strengths and growth areas, provided comments and advice on improving the solution.

Andrey Surovenkov and Olga Bochkareva

Olga Bochkareva, a member of the expert committee, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management for Academic Affairs, Associate Professor at the Department of Management in Construction, believes that the championship gave students the opportunity to boost their skills in practice, to feel that the entire project depends on the joint work. In addition, the competition showed that students of technical specialties need to learn to speak: "Whatever profession students are studying - builder, designer, architect - it is important to be able to "sell" their projects. In the modern world, there is no way around it!"

Andrey Surovenkov, a member of the expert committee and Head of the Department of Architectural Design, believes that the benefit of the championship is that students from different specialties, who most likely did not know each other before, unite into a team. For the curators, this is also a useful experience – they had to set the vector for creating a good project.

The chairman of the expert commission, head of the group of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning department of Metropolis Kirill Pivovarov is sure: for the company, the championship is, first of all, attracting new employees. Moreover, employers have the opportunity to evaluate their abilities without an interview and a probationary period. For students, this is an opportunity to create. When drawing up the task, the company was guided by the current capabilities of the students and, at the same time, sought to bring the tasks closer to reality.

"This is a great experience for the guys in terms of applying their skills in practice. The theory they study at the university is superimposed on a real project here, and this will help them in their future work. Many students are great: they have quite serious projects at the level of practicing designers. I would rate the overall level of work as very high," said member of the expert commission, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Heat and Gas Supply and Ventilation Sergey Kashnikov.

"I regularly participate in assessing student work at a variety of competitions - both at our university and at other venues. I would like to note that it is precisely such competitions that develop students' extremely important skills of independent work, including as part of project teams. And it is especially pleasant to see that the level of students' works is growing from year to year," said Denis Nizhegorodtsev, a member of the expert commission and deputy director of the Educational Center for Digital Competence.

Third place went to the YeezyBIM team (mentor: Associate Professor at the Department of Heat and Gas Supply and Ventilation Viktor Yakovlev). It included Alina Kizchenko (fourth-year bachelor's student at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, leader/BIM coordinator), Arina Tereshchenko (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Architecture, architect), Olga Gavrichenkova (third-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, water use and sanitation engineer), Anna Yarullina (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, design engineer of internal electrical equipment and lighting), Yaroslav Perevalov (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Polina Orlova (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, heating and ventilation engineer).

The second place was won by the team "Bim Bam Boom" (mentor - assistant at the Department of Architectural Environment Design Dmitry Fleisher). The team consists of Emilia Sukhareva (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Architecture, leader/architect), Kirill Besedin (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Daniil Goncharenko (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, heating and ventilation engineer), Mikhail Danilchenko (third-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Kirill Ivanov (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, BIM coordinator), Sergey Sergeev (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, power supply engineer), Dmitry Sidorchuk (fourth-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, water supply and sanitation engineer).

"The team decided to implement the current principle of nature-likeness as the most suitable for the given topic. It implies minimizing the impact on the environment and using natural factors for the functioning of the facility. The team worked under the leadership of captain Emilia Sukhareva, a talented student studying at the Department of AED. Kirill Besedin is the most experienced and proactive member of the team. Daniil Goncharenko, having project experience, successfully implemented the general concept of ventilation and heating. Dmitry Sidorchuk, having extensive experience in participating in competitions of this kind, managed to provide the facility with water supply and sewerage networks. Sergey Sergeev, also an experienced team member, was engaged in the design of power supply networks and showed an excellent result. Mikhail Danilchenko gained his first experience of participating in a team on this project, but he coped with the tasks set very well. Kirill Ivanov provided BIM technologies throughout the project and in all its areas. Well done!" - summed up Dmitry Fleisher.

The first place was awarded to the "C-Key" team (mentor - Deputy Dean for Career Guidance Counceling, Associate Professor at the Department of Technosphere Safety Aleksandr Glukhanov). It included Ekaterina Buryak (third-year specialist's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, chief project engineer), Aleksandra Leonova (third-year specialist's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, BIM coordinator), Elizaveta Petrova (third-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Architecture, architect), Sofia Tarkhanova (third-year specialist's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Denis Lebedev (third-year specialist's student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, designer), Aleksey Khimichev (third-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Architecture, architect), Aleksandr Katsyuba (third-year bachelor's student of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, specialist in engineering networks).

"It was difficult. But we approached the solution comprehensively, followed all the requirements of the assignment and achieved the result!" - Ekaterina Buryak is sure.

"This is the first time I have had such an experience of live interaction with the subject area. I worked with guys from other specialties, it was very interesting. I learned some programs all over again, I learned a lot of new things in these three weeks. The experience is colossal!" - shared Aleksandr Katsyuba.

"We developed the architectural solutions section together with Elizaveta Petrova. And we want to say that this project was very interesting for us from the point of view of interaction between specialists in related fields. It was interesting to track how architectural issues are connected with issues of utility networks, design solutions, how all issues are resolved in the design system," said Aleksey Khimchev.

The mentor of the winners, Aleksandr Glukhanov, gave his comment: "The team developed a concept for the development of a tourist cluster on the Black Sea coast. The students created a detailed description of the construction project, took into account the features of the area, the needs of tourists, and the possibilities of using the infrastructure. They created a harmonious arrangement of the park area located in the heart of the territory, the active recreation area and the entrance area, integrated recreation areas and other functional components of the complex. Special attention was paid to the optimal combination of space-planning solutions: they took into account functional, sanitary and hygienic and fire safety requirements."

The champions and prize winners of the "Architecture, engineering, construction and housing and public utilities" category will be invited to an internship at Metropolis with the opportunity of further employment. The winning team will take part in the final competition, which will be held in Moscow at the end of May. We wish them good luck!