Strategic Board of Cyber Auto Tech engineering school discusses results of 2023 and plans for the future
A meeting was held in Naberezhnye Chelny on 16 April under the leadership of Rector Lenar Safin.
The event was held at the Engineering Center of the Naberezhnye Chelny Institute with the participation of representatives of the key industrial partner KAMAZ, the ministries of education and science of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan, and the Mayor of Naberezhnye Chelny Nail Magdeev.
Before the meeting, the participants toured the laboratories and educational spaces of the engineering school. Georgy Kotiev, Director of the Institute, demonstrated the new state-of-the-art equipment and spoke about the construction of an educational building, which will be a high-tech cluster with modern laboratories. The structure of the cluster includes an innovation center with a business incubator, the Center for Advanced Developments, a business center, and a branch of the Higher School of Information Technologies and Systems (ITIS).
Then the participants moved to the conference hall to discuss the main issues on the agenda. The results of the activity of the advanced engineering school of the university for the past year and plans for its development for 2024 were presented. The curators of priority areas from KAMAZ reported on the upcoming developments.
The school has three priority areas. Cyber Auto Tech is working on solving engineering and technological problems for an industrial partner in low-carbon footprint vehicles, development of an intelligent vehicle, and intelligent manufacturing technologies.
In 2024, the main focus will be on digitalization and robotization of production facilities. According to the strategy of scientific and technological development of Russia, by 2030 the country should be among the 25 leading countries in the production of industrial robots. And here, KFU plans to increase the pace every year, creating unmanned production, improving product quality and productivity. There are also plans to increase the share of alternative fuel vehicles to 30%, and to reduce the carbon footprint of public transportation in large urban agglomerations by 70%. The school is now working on modifying the composition of catalytic layers, fuel cell assembly technologies, CFD/FEM research, and finding new scientific solutions to improve the efficiency and environmental friendliness of the internal combustion engine.
In the field of intelligent automobilism, work is underway on the development of an unmanned shuttle that will operate in autonomous mode along a predetermined route with automatic navigation. In addition, a multimodal transportation system using UAVs and machinery for the forestry industry is being developed.
The Rector noted that the university’s advanced engineering school has been successfully implementing the project since 2022, and according to the results of the Grants Council meeting, it was included in the first funding group in 2023.
“We are preparing a new type of engineering staff capable of implementing breakthrough developments and conducting research for the automotive industry, and KFU sets a goal for itself to become the number one university in this,” Lenar Safin emphasized.
The Mayor of Naberezhnye Chelny, in turn, added that KFU developments are the future of KAMAZ and the city. According to Nail Magdeev, it is extremely important to attract talented graduates and create all opportunities for them to stay in the region and work on its development, so the city administration will provide all possible support in the implementation of such projects.
KAMAZ deputy general directors Irek Gumerov and Zhanna Khaliullina thanked the university team for their work, saying that cooperation with Kazan University allowed the company to obtain promising design and technological solutions for the production of new vehicles.
At the end of the meeting, the participants approved the financial plan of the advanced engineering school for 2024, the list of research and development works, the equipment procurement plan, and the list of works on the creation of scientific and educational spaces.