Achievements and prospects of implementation of the international project on the training of young scientists

In Minsk (Republic of Belarus) on March 23-24, 2015, the third meeting of participants of the international project «Centers of Excellence for young RESearchers» (CERES – «Centers of excellence for young scientists») of the «Tempus» program of the European Commission took place. The meeting was attended by teachers and young scientists from universities in Germany (Padeborn), Slovakia (Žilina), Belarus (Gomel, Brest, Minsk) and Ukraine (Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia). From the Zaporizhzhia National Technical University (ZNTU), the meeting was attended by professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences. S. O. Subbotin and associate professor, Ph.D. A. O. Oliynyk.

The meeting was opened with welcoming words to the project participants by the vice-rector for academic work and quality management of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (Minsk) O. M. Zhivytska and the project coordinator from the University of Žilina (Žilina, Slovakia) Prof., Doctor of Philosophy K. Matiashko.

The participants of the meeting noted the problems of ensuring access of young scientists to scientific digital libraries and the low number of foreign publications in partner universities from the CIS. It is planned to solve these problems by developing and implementing an information system that will provide a qualitatively new level of preparation and defense of diploma and other scientific works of young specialists and scientists. Similar systems for finding scientific topics and disseminating the results of scientific research have long and successfully existed in many European countries, however, only at the undergraduate level and within one or two universities. The purpose of the CERES project is to cover all levels of higher education from bachelor’s to master’s and postgraduate, as well as to unite young scientists from several countries to research current scientific problems.

At the meeting, it was noted that the CERES project will not only contribute to the transfer of knowledge and the training of target groups (representatives of enterprises, teachers and young scientists) through the dissemination of project results in universities of partner countries and enterprises, but, first of all, will help the practical implementation of scientific ideas by combining education, science and production into a single triangle of knowledge.

On the created CERES portal, it is planned to open a «catalogue of orders» from industrial enterprises, the solution of which young scientists will be able to undertake in their research. The joint work of local and international groups of young scientists will be organized through the portal. Moreover, students and scientists from related fields of knowledge will be able to work on one project. As a result, young scientists will create projects, according to which they will defend their diploma theses. According to a similar scenario, groups will be built to solve more complex scientific problems.

The participants of the meeting exchanged experience in training young scientists at partner universities, held consultations on the development of a web portal for organizing the work and interaction of young scientists during scientific research, discussed the issue of creating a new international journal for the publication of research results of young scientists (the introduction of the journal to international databases is planned).

Representatives of partner universities gave presentations on the implementation of the project. In particular, in the report of Prof. S. O. Subbotina highlighted the activity of the Council of Young Scientists and Specialists of ZNTU and the progress of project implementation at ZNTU.

In order to ensure the functioning and implementation of the information system at ZNTU, it is planned to purchase computer equipment. Financing of the new equipment is provided at the expense of the funds of the CERES project, provided by the European Commission.

In the framework of the meeting, training seminars were also held for the preparation of CERES managers – persons who will be involved in the implementation and dissemination of modern European teaching methods and innovative pedagogical technologies for the training of young scientists.

The participants of the meeting visited the laboratories of the Faculty of Computer Systems and Networks, got acquainted with the experience of creating joint laboratories with CISCO, National Instruments, SAP at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, and walked around the Park of High Technologies. The cultural program included a visit to the university museum, the national library and a sightseeing tour of Minsk.

According to the results of the meeting, its participants received certificates of CERES project managers, developed the structure of the future portal, agreed on future cooperation on the implementation of the project and dissemination of its results in the form of seminars, conferences, trainings and a summer school, which is planned to be held in 2016 at ZNTU.

Department of international relations and work with foreign students