The qualifying round of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN" in the direction of "Architecture, design, construction and housing and utility infrastructure", hosted by SPbGASU, has finished. It was attended by ten teams. According to experts and organizers, the number of participants is growing every year, and the current qualifying round was the peak.

“CASE-IN” is an international competition system for solving engineering cases for schoolchildren, students and young professionals. The championship has been implemented since 2013 with the support of the presidential platform “Russia – the Land of Opportunities”. The general theme of this year’s championship is “Lean Manufacturing”, the task was to develop the concept of a standard universal multifunctional complex. The work on the project lasted for ten days. The organizer of the event at the university was the SPbGASU Division for Student Entrepreneurship and Career.

Marina Malyutina

“Students of our university have been participating in both the autumn cup and the main season of the student league championship for several years. This extracurricular event is being held in accordance with the subprogram “Quality Professional Education” of the Development Program of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education SPbGASU for 2023–2032, aimed at developing and supporting talented youth. Championships of this kind give students the opportunity to test the competencies developed while mastering the main educational program. Thus, the best students who want to work in their specialty in the future begin to build a professional career during their studies, solving cases from specialized organizations that are partners of the university,” said Marina Malyutina, head of the SPbGASU Division for Student Entrepreneurship and Career.

The projects were presented by the SPbGASU teams “Buildchamps” (supervisior – associate professor Ekaterina Anshukova), “Builders of future” (associate professor Viktor Yakovlev), “Proektoriat” (senior lecturer Vyacheslav Tonkikh), “Dyadyurina and Partners” (director of the architectural workshop “Lovkachev and Partners” Dmitry Lovkachev), "EstetStroy", "ArchiTekt" (associate professor Egor Danilov), "Silhouette", "Honeycomb" (associate professor Sergey Bovteev), "Monolith" (assistant Viktor Tsyganovkin) and the "BIM-TIM" team of Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University (senior teacher Galina Bardina).

Each project has a unique vision of a modern multifunctional center, and many have a deep analysis of the factors influencing the choice of the concept. In the proposed concepts, lean production is achieved both through the design of utility networks and with the help of artificial intelligence, which helps to choose the optimal solutions, including the architectural appearance of the building.

The partners of the championship qualifying round were the Metropolis company and the Alabuga special economic zone, and their specialists acted as members of the expert commission.

The chairman of the expert commission, the head of the group of the ventilation and air conditioning department of the Metropolis company, Kirill Pivovarov, noted the high level of the presented works.

“Today we saw specialists who get out and do it, not wondering whether they will succeed or not. The presented architectural and conceptual solutions were impressive, and in engineering solutions I recommend paying closer attention, first of all, to the placement of premises. But in general, the amount of work completed in such a short period of time is impressive: there are mature solutions that speak of the good practical skills of the participants. The winning project is distinguished by the non-trivial approach of its authors, their enthusiasm, and desire to make a solution well and beautifully,” explained Kirill Pivovarov.

The captain and architect of the winning team “Dyadyurina and Partners”, master’s student of the Faculty of Architecture Anastasia Dyadyurina, is confident that the success of the project was ensured not only by the quality of the work, but also by the idea itself.

“According to the specifications, participants were assigned to develop a universal multifunctional complex for different regions of Russia. Accordingly, we needed to discover the factor that unites our large country. During the study, we found out that such a factor is a fairly cold climate. In addition, almost the entire territory is rich in green spaces. This is how the idea arose to create an oasis in the urban environment - a winter garden as a powerful point of attraction with recreation areas and educational playgrounds. We share the victory with our practical mentor, we will definitely take into account the recommendations of experts and improve our project for the next stage of the championship,” shared Anastasia Dyadyurina.

The second place went to the Silhouette team, and Monolith took third place. But all participants admitted that they had a good experience in concept development and teamwork.

A fourth-year student at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services, who competed as part of the “Builders of Future” team, Glafira Bachmanova, is taking part in the championship for the fourth time.

“The team I played for won the qualifying round several times, but was not yet able to enter the top three winners of the championship. This year we also gathered talented guys, specialists in their field, into our team. At such a championship, you effectively improve your skills and learn a lot of valuable things in the profession,” said Glafira Bachmanova.

The captain of the “Proektoriat” team, Natalya Kulsharypova, believes that “CASE-IN” is an interesting project because it provides an opportunity to work in a team and, thus, gain practical skills necessary for future professional activities.

“Of course, I would like to win, but, in any case, we, as participants, benefit because we received experience and expert recommendations,” summed up Natalya Kulsharypova.