Ekaterina Arkhangelskaya, Head of the Department of Design, Construction, and Technology at NEFU; Vladimir Mestnikov, Senior Lecturer at the Department; Iya Mestnikova; and Andrey Nikulin
On 8–11 June, the M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk, held a joint meeting of the board of the Association of Construction Universities (ACU), the presidium of the Federal Educational and Methodological Association (FUMO) for an enlarged group of specialties and fields of study (UGSN) 08.00.00. Construction technique and technology, as well as the Council of the Industry Consortium “Construction and Architecture”. The event was attended by the Dean of the SPbGASU Faculty of Civil Engineering, Head of the Department of Technosphere Safety Andrey Nikulin.
University representatives (rectors, vice-rectors, institute directors, and faculty deans) discussed the challenges and prospects of implementing the fourth-generation federal state educational standards, which are proposed to be implemented based on a new list of consolidated specialty groups. Oleg Kabantsev, Deputy Chairman of the FUMO "Construction technique and technology" and Professor at the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, noted that the proposal to merge the specialties "Architecture" and "Civil Engineering" into a single specialty had not found support in the academic and professional communities and was not currently under review by a working group established at the initiative of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.
Andrey Nikulin presented to colleagues the main results of SPbGASU's preparations for the admission of applicants to the new program, 08.03.01 Civil Engineering, profile "Restoration of Buildings and Structures."
"Interest in the new program is genuine. Discussing the key requirements for the program and overall curriculum is of interest to architects in Yakutsk, as the city, with its nearly four-hundred-year history, is restoring cultural heritage sites. However, the burden on the regional budget is sometimes overwhelming, and the bulk of the costs fall on private businesses, which, in pursuit of commercialization, have their own visions for the new functionality of the facility, which is not always feasible and requires a competent engineering approach," noted a representative of our university.
Nikolay Alekseev, Head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Development at NEFU and chief architect of Yakutsk for 13 years, explained: "We fought for every structural and decorative element during the restoration and reconstruction of Yakutsk's 'old town,' which entrepreneurs wanted to exploit for their own commercial purposes... Without engineering justification for the elements of the wooden structure restoration project, it would have been difficult to find a compromise with investors."
Ekaterina Arkhangelskaya, Director of the NEFU Engineering and Technical Institute, presented to the meeting participants a project for an advanced engineering school, "Geotechnical Engineering in the Cryolithozone," aimed at training specialists and researchers for the construction industry in permafrost conditions. The new engineering school will bring together the academic community, the innovative ecosystem of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), industry partners, service companies, and engineering centers.
Andrey Nikulin and Ekaterina Arkhangelskaya discussed prospects for cooperation between the two universities in the field of geotechnical engineering in permafrost conditions, as well as the construction and operation of underground structures, where the SPbGASU Department of Geotechnics enjoys a high reputation. They also discussed collaboration in the field of information modeling technologies, which are rapidly developing at NEFU, and SPbGASU's experience is in high demand not only for the development of the educational process but also for the design of private housing projects. "Our graduates receive significantly more orders from private clients than other designers, as they are able to create a 3D model of the future home and quickly make changes to the design. For our republic, this is an innovative approach in the field of private housing construction," noted Artem Fedorov, senior lecturer at the Department of Heat, Gas Supply, and Ventilation at NEFU.
Andrey Nikulin proposed to his colleagues the creation of a joint scientific and technical center for more effective cooperation in the areas of scientific, technological, and personnel support for the construction industry.
