Ivan Fedotov, Igor Chernyaev, head of practical training at the Department of TM, senior lecturer Igor Graevsky (in the foreground, left) and students at the vehicle handover ceremony
The proactive stance of AvtoVAZ's management, led by President Maksim Sokolov, sets the tone for systematic support of engineering schools. Attention is paid not only to attracting talented young people to the company but also to creating conditions for their professional development at the early stages of their education.
This trend was confirmed by the donation of a LADA Granta car to the St Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, as part of a partnership between the company and the university, for the needs of student engineering projects at the Faculty of Automobile and Road Building.
The flagship project, for which the donated vehicle is intended as the technical basis, is the "Roadster Crimea" student car. In 2020, SPbGASU and the Interuniversity Student Engineering and Technology Corporation signed a cooperation agreement to implement this and other projects, and now this alliance is receiving new impetus for development.
The project's core objective is for students to independently master the full design cycle and individual (and eventually small-scale) production of a motor vehicle, resulting in their own design solutions, design documentation, and an assembled prototype. This fully aligns with the concept of interdisciplinary project-based learning, which is actively developing at SPbGASU.
Our university's Faculty of Automobile and Road Building has accumulated significant resources for the project's implementation: a training and production facility has been established within the Krasnoye Selo Training Center, reverse engineering technologies based on 3D scanning have been developed, a three-axis CNC milling machine designed for the production of full-size dies for body parts has been commissioned, the university's automobile club has significant experience in technical solutions, and the Interuniversity Student Engineering and Technology Corporation has donated a supporting frame. All of this was made possible thanks to the systematic support of the university's management and the direct involvement of Vice-Rector for Educational Activity, Sergey Mikhailov.
The receipt of the vehicle from AvtoVAZ, the ceremonial handover of which took place at the Krasnoye Selo site on 9 July, takes the project to the next level, significantly contributing to its financial support.
The car was handed over from AvtoVAZ by the head of the AvtoVAZ Engineering Center in St Petersburg, Honored Designer of Russia Ivan Fedotov.
SPbGASU has been collaborating with the Engineering Center since its establishment in 2023. The university receives informational and methodological support, and the center's experts participate in independent qualification assessments as part of the GIA-NOK project. The Engineering Center team includes approximately a dozen SPbGASU students and graduates, several of whom successfully defended their master's theses this summer, including on topics proposed by the center.
Ivan Fedotov praised the proactive approaches to engineering education at SPbGASU, confirmed his intention to continue the collaboration, outlined promising areas, and expressed his willingness to continue sharing his experience with the university's young professionals.
Igor Chernyaev, PhD of Engineering Sciences, Head of the Department of Transport Maintenance, expressed gratitude for the contribution to the project's financial support and expressed confidence that the established collaboration would contribute to improving the quality of graduate training.