International Aerospace Summer School 2020 Program in MAI is over

On July 28, the International Aerospace Summer School 2020 Program ended at the Moscow aviation Institute. This year, the educational event was held for the first time in online format and was dedicated to additive technologies. The main goal of the program is to promote higher technical education in Russia and, in particular, in MAI as in the leading aerospace university of the country.

During nine days, more than 150 people from leading Chinese technical universities studied additive technologies in the aerospace industry, as well as cultural and ethnographic features of our country. This year audience was not only students and postgraduates, but also doctors of science. Therefore, the educational content, developed by the team of the laboratory of additive technologies Institute No. 9 «Engineering training» under the guidance of associate Professor of 904 Andrew Ripetsky, was adapted to spark interest in both young and more experienced generation.

«The global result is the development of scientific and technical cooperation, and it became possible via use of the MAI’s LMS online platform and joint interest. Two-way live communication took place during the online classes. The students asked a lot of questions and completed the tasks diligently. As a result, absolutely everyone left positive feedback about the program, » - noted Andrey Ripetsky.

MAI as a promoter of distance educational tourism

One of the unique features of the summer school is that it was online, and that was for the first time.

«It is clear that MAI is able to create absolutely unique educational product of high-quality and deliver it internationally using digital technologies, like Coursera, edX, Skillbox and other platforms do. We are going to expand this skill and transfer the accumulated experience of creating educational content to the next projects of the first semester of foreign baccalaureate.» — says Alexander Hwang, the Director of the Summer School.

At the MAI Summer School, we believe that foreign citizens’ familiarity with higher education in Russia and the University, which in future years may become their second home, helping them to ascend to the next stage of professional development, should be closely accompanied by familiarity with cultural and ethnographic aspects also. That is why Russian language, culture and history classes were presented to the participants, and video reviews of Russian cuisine and food were made daily as entertainment content, which aroused excitement among the students. Apart from homework on the main educational topic, students tried to memorize as many Russian words as possible and learn how to cook delicious pancakes.

«The significant result of the Summer School is the consolidation of the universities of our two countries during isolation and social distancing, when students can neither attend their own University, nor get engaged in educational tourism. Our Summer School has become an example of high-quality transfer of knowledge and Russian culture to foreign students in format of distance learning» — Alexander Khvan said. — «I am also very happy that this year caring teachers from outside who understand the importance of participation in such projects joined our program. I am talking about Sergey Mozhenin, the tutor of the Stockholm school of Economics, and Dietrich Feidel, CEO of LLC „3D-Meduza“ from the SKOLKOVO Innovation center.»

The result of the project activity is a packaged product for a startup

To a greater extent, the participants of the summer school are grateful to MAI for the quality of the project activities organized and conducted in distance format, because this year Summer School can in some sense be positioned as a startup school.

Automation comes to various aspects of our lives. Robots are already used in various fields, including the aviation and space industries, and the tendency increases. Therefore, the practical part of the program was aimed at creating robot assistants.

The work for the project was targeted at package development of the product with the calculation of the technical side and the economy of the project, as well as outlining of its uniqueness and value. The participants created the presentations with focus on potential investors. Further, there is a possibility that joint activities may result into real scientific and technical projects developed by Russia and China together.

«All this work is typical for startups, when an idea turns into a product with possible development. Some ideas might surely actually get support in the future and turn into real projects — says Andrey Ripetsky. — The result of the program is our joint inter-University development and the potential for scaling up our cooperation.»