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Is there enough staff for the Russian nanoindustry? In what areas should improve the work of educational institutions? What is the practical importance of professional standards? These questions are answered by our experts.
It is no secret that qualified specialists in nanotechnology are scant. The competencies of graduates do not always meet the requirements of the industry. The well-known reasons are that science and education were in stagnation for twenty years and the engineering profession became less prestigious. The novelty of the technology is also playing a big role because a university applicant has to know what he or she is going to do in the future, while school curricula provide a vague overview of "nano". The 2011 Chemistry Nobel Prize Laureate, Dan Schechtman, who made a speech in St. Petersburg a few years ago, said that the popularization of science in Israel starts in the kindergarten. Possibly, this is one of the reasons that this country is a leader in the field of science: Israel ranks first in the world in the number of scientific publications per capita.
Fortunately, in the past few years, the Russian professional associations, universities, businesses, public authorities have put great efforts into improving the quality of training nanotechnology specialists. These efforts include training specialists starting from secondary school. For example, the St. Petersburg Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No 239 was equipped with a nanotechnology classroom with the support of the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University. The teachers of the Lyceum and the ITMO University jointly conduct courses on robotics. St. Petersburg has also several other secondary schools supported by technological universities, but those cases are sporadic.
We, as an engineering company, especially feel the critical shortage of engineers in the field of designing and operating technological equipment in high-tech enterprises. The scope of the current and future tasks that we carry out in the coming year requires doubling the number of design and technology engineers. The company has already experienced such growth and we understand that it will not be easy, so we hope for a long-term cooperation with universities, and we invite students to internship, we support professional competitions and Olympiads.
As for occupations in high-tech industries specifically, the shortage of specialists is particularly noticeable in areas where knowledge and experience in the implementation of new production technologies were lacking. We frequently run into this problem, so at the stage of project development, transfer and adaptation of technologies, we offer training in partner universities.
An effective solution is the cooperation of one of the country’s leading universities with an educational institution of the region, where it is planned to develop an industry. Our main partners are the ITMO University, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, the education coordinators of the National Nanotechnological Network of St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI" and the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. We develop curricula in conjunction with regional universities. Students receive training and undertake internships in two cities, work with modern equipment, and receive two diplomas upon graduation with a job in a new enterprise. This practice was introduced when a fiber cluster was created in the Republic of Mordovia (the projects of the Engineering Center for Fiber Optics and the Fiber Optics Plant). The project involved the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs of Rusnano and launched a master’s program of Nanotechnology in fiber optics in the Mordovian State University and the ITMO University.
Another requisite for improving the quality of training is increasing business participation in the educational process and deepening the cooperation between universities and industries by developing professional standards and creating base faculties. Defining and approving sets of competences by business representatives for a professional specialist allows universities to improve their educational processes. To solve this issue, the National Nanotechnology Network and Interbranch Association of Nanoindustry, which includes Eltech SPb, develop professional standards, create graduate competency certification centers, and conduct professional public accreditation of curricula. Whenever possible, we send our staff out to participate in these processes.
The nanotechnology industry requires skilled professionals, what, in turn, leads to a permanent workforce shortage. Although the problem in this area is obvious for a long time, to solve it is not so easy. The lack of specialized departments in universities and, as a consequence, relevant training programs in most areas is only one reason for the shortage. A good specialist should have not only high qualification, but also relevant experience. In our industry, as in any other, experience plays a leading role. However, due to the feature of the industry, the specialist should be trained practically from scratch. This is primarily due to the fact that higher education provides only the basics of knowledge, and previous experience is often not suitable in the transition to a new job.
In particular, in Russian universities there are only a few specialized departments that train specialists in the field of electronic engineering. This is clearly not enough for the full development of the industry. In any case, the graduates of these universities can not be considered ready specialists. Anyway, graduates of such educational institutions aren't qualified specialists. Several years is necessary for their training directly at the enterprise. To reduce this period it is necessary to establish links between universities and business. Such a system should be created, when both business and educational institutions are interested in collaborating with each other. Also the state may and should lend a helping hand. For example, if the state supports a new development, why then not send it in an educational institution for testing and to involve in the project the students as a practice? If the state is able to attract business to the project, students who will be involved in such projects will get benefit in the labor market.
With regard to educational services to improve the skills of the staff, they are not always applicable in areas such as nanotechnology. Improve the skills of professionals with a technical background allows practical work on projects. However, our company has experience in the development and implementation of training courses for electronic engineering in several areas. The program was developed on the initiative of Rusnano jointly with experts from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University and SemiTEq JSC, and was tested at our plant. It should be noted the positive impact of such training on employees, as well as improving cooperation between all departments of the company. However, such specialized courses in the education market are rare. Specialized education of staff is in great demand, therefore it is necessary to develop competencies of students in accordance with their specialization. I think that the work that began Rusnano in this area, it is necessary to continue and extend to other branches.
When you do some very important work, qualified personnel is always scarce. We see it constantly at the household level, for example. If we want to make repairs in our apartment or cottage, we put great, but oftentimes inefficient, efforts into the search of perfect repairmen. The more difficult the task, the harder it is to find professionals who can do it.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of our practical activities in the field of experimental nanotechnology. In hindsight, I often think about how, back in 1987, we managed to create, in the shortest possible time, almost in 3 months, a commercial scanning probe microscope and to confirm immediately its unique capacity for observation of the atomic lattice of copper (111) and graphite. Nowadays, we clearly understand that the things were so successful, because we had built a unique team of creative and talented scientists and specialists, such as Vladimir Panov, Sergey Savinov, Yuri Moiseyev, Sergey Vasilyev, and Vasily Leonov. The high professionalism backed up by enthusiasm of the years of Perestroika helped to develop and to launch a serial production of scanning tunnel and atomic force microscopes in record time.
The 12th of September 2015 will be 25th anniversary of the Advanced Technologies Center, which is a company working in the area of scanning probe microscopy, the main instrumental method of experimental nanotechnologies. A completely new generation of specialists with new aspirations and skills have been grown during these years. Although the number of electronic technicians who are able to create unique electronic devices has notably decreased, the number of programmers is dramatically growing and digital electronics are significantly advancing. Some conventional industrial occupations, such as turners, millers, toolmakers, metalworkers and others, are disappearing, but machining is moving on a completely different level. Machining units need specialists with professional programmer, designer, and technologist skills.
In 2011 and 2012, we received a substantial support for the purposes of retraining from the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs of Rusnano, which funded our educational project called "NanoTurner"*. The project name has two meanings. Above all, the number of turners and millers is reduced to the "nano" level in modern Russia and all over the world as compared to the period of the Soviet Union. Simultaneously, the modern machining, such as turning, milling, electric sparking, and grinding have achieved a nanometer precision. Thus, the name "NanoTurner" was chosen intentionally. Furthermore, thanks to this program, we managed to launch in 2014 the Russian mass production of digital machining units. Read our article describing this in the current issue of the Nanoindustry magazine. Software, positioning systems, control electronics, control algorithms are almost the same for machining units and for scanning probe microscopes.
Training specialists for Russian nanotech industry is a matter of national importance and universities have enthusiastically joined this initiative. Numerous universities have introduced nanotechnology disciplines in the past five years. For example, the Lomonosov Moscow State University has created the Scientific Educational Center for Nanotechnologies under the guidance of Academician Khokhlov. Open public lectures offered by leading scientists are widely broadcast in the Internet and are distributed on electronic media.
Young people must be actively involved in creative work much a long time before the university. In Soviet times, there were so called Palaces of Pioneers, which were often in a walking distance creating opportunities for children to take part in clubs of crafts and independent work. Unfortunately, this highly elaborate work with schoolchildren and preschoolers has practically come to naught. Nonetheless, attempts to revive such activities have been made taking into account the current challenges and the new levels. Being supported by the Moscow government on this issue, the Center for Advanced Technologies in cooperation with the Lomonosov Moscow State University has created the Nanotechnologies youth innovation creativity center, which provides training courses on nanotechnology, scanning probe microscopy, 3D printers, 3D scanners, digital machining centers. Courses are designed for both university students and secondary school children. Detailed information is on the website of the Center – www.startinnovation.com. Numerous contests are held there, among which the most popular one is titled "My First Plant". Please, visit the Center’s website, read it, get involved and win!
One of the primary challenges for the country’s nanotech industry development is training highly skilled and artful specialists, who can effectively address current and emerging scientific and technological issues.
Comparing the cost of education in the field of nanotechnology in Russia with the average wages, one would say that training in this field is expensive. However, the enrolment competition for nanotech specialties at leading universities of the country is very high. At least, five people compete for each publicly funded place. It should be noted that in some other countries, tuition fees in the field of nanotechnology is significantly lower than in Russia (as compared to average wages) or there may even be no tuition at all if the applicant is a citizen of the country where he or she is enrolled, or is a citizen of the European Union for an EU university. The high cost of education is an issue that makes training in the nanotech industry problematic and impedes the general development of the industry. This problem occurs even though the President has ordered the nanotechnology to be included into the List of Critical Technologies of the Russian Federation.
Nanotechnology strategic planning, as well as scientific, technical and innovational policies require cooperation and developing a common approach used by academicians and educators for human development in the field of nanotechnology. We believe that this goal can be achieved only by interaction with public authorities at various levels, industry and public organizations and associations, including international entities. Unfortunately, Russia still lacks effective mechanisms for coordination of these activities.
These issues are being tackled by the Scientific Team for Interdisciplinary Research and by the International Scientific Team responsible for cooperation with foreign scientific centers in the Nanotechnologies Scientific Educational Center headed by Professor Stanishevsky at the People’s Friendship University of Russia (PFUR). We see that the problem is bigger than just a lack of specialists in the field of nanotechnology, and we believe that a synergistic effect in the industry may be created in the first place by engaging specialists from different fields. In other words, we focus on a multidisciplinary approach to attract talented and creative generators of ideas.
If researchers always agree with their supervisors, if they do not question scientific paradigms, do not try to interpret scientific facts constructively or to create their own intellectual products, they become useless in science and business. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach in the PFUR and combining it with the practice of creating small innovative enterprises in universities, we hope to create a new form of interaction between science and business, particularly, innovative interdisciplinary teams and startup creators that are interested in fundamental and applied research and commercialization of the results of their activities without giving up the academic science. Eagles do not fly in flocks – you must look for them individually. This is what we do by creating a talent pool for the Russian science and business.
Fortunately, in the past few years, the Russian professional associations, universities, businesses, public authorities have put great efforts into improving the quality of training nanotechnology specialists. These efforts include training specialists starting from secondary school. For example, the St. Petersburg Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No 239 was equipped with a nanotechnology classroom with the support of the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University. The teachers of the Lyceum and the ITMO University jointly conduct courses on robotics. St. Petersburg has also several other secondary schools supported by technological universities, but those cases are sporadic.
We, as an engineering company, especially feel the critical shortage of engineers in the field of designing and operating technological equipment in high-tech enterprises. The scope of the current and future tasks that we carry out in the coming year requires doubling the number of design and technology engineers. The company has already experienced such growth and we understand that it will not be easy, so we hope for a long-term cooperation with universities, and we invite students to internship, we support professional competitions and Olympiads.
As for occupations in high-tech industries specifically, the shortage of specialists is particularly noticeable in areas where knowledge and experience in the implementation of new production technologies were lacking. We frequently run into this problem, so at the stage of project development, transfer and adaptation of technologies, we offer training in partner universities.
An effective solution is the cooperation of one of the country’s leading universities with an educational institution of the region, where it is planned to develop an industry. Our main partners are the ITMO University, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, the education coordinators of the National Nanotechnological Network of St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI" and the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. We develop curricula in conjunction with regional universities. Students receive training and undertake internships in two cities, work with modern equipment, and receive two diplomas upon graduation with a job in a new enterprise. This practice was introduced when a fiber cluster was created in the Republic of Mordovia (the projects of the Engineering Center for Fiber Optics and the Fiber Optics Plant). The project involved the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs of Rusnano and launched a master’s program of Nanotechnology in fiber optics in the Mordovian State University and the ITMO University.
Another requisite for improving the quality of training is increasing business participation in the educational process and deepening the cooperation between universities and industries by developing professional standards and creating base faculties. Defining and approving sets of competences by business representatives for a professional specialist allows universities to improve their educational processes. To solve this issue, the National Nanotechnology Network and Interbranch Association of Nanoindustry, which includes Eltech SPb, develop professional standards, create graduate competency certification centers, and conduct professional public accreditation of curricula. Whenever possible, we send our staff out to participate in these processes.
The nanotechnology industry requires skilled professionals, what, in turn, leads to a permanent workforce shortage. Although the problem in this area is obvious for a long time, to solve it is not so easy. The lack of specialized departments in universities and, as a consequence, relevant training programs in most areas is only one reason for the shortage. A good specialist should have not only high qualification, but also relevant experience. In our industry, as in any other, experience plays a leading role. However, due to the feature of the industry, the specialist should be trained practically from scratch. This is primarily due to the fact that higher education provides only the basics of knowledge, and previous experience is often not suitable in the transition to a new job.
In particular, in Russian universities there are only a few specialized departments that train specialists in the field of electronic engineering. This is clearly not enough for the full development of the industry. In any case, the graduates of these universities can not be considered ready specialists. Anyway, graduates of such educational institutions aren't qualified specialists. Several years is necessary for their training directly at the enterprise. To reduce this period it is necessary to establish links between universities and business. Such a system should be created, when both business and educational institutions are interested in collaborating with each other. Also the state may and should lend a helping hand. For example, if the state supports a new development, why then not send it in an educational institution for testing and to involve in the project the students as a practice? If the state is able to attract business to the project, students who will be involved in such projects will get benefit in the labor market.
With regard to educational services to improve the skills of the staff, they are not always applicable in areas such as nanotechnology. Improve the skills of professionals with a technical background allows practical work on projects. However, our company has experience in the development and implementation of training courses for electronic engineering in several areas. The program was developed on the initiative of Rusnano jointly with experts from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University and SemiTEq JSC, and was tested at our plant. It should be noted the positive impact of such training on employees, as well as improving cooperation between all departments of the company. However, such specialized courses in the education market are rare. Specialized education of staff is in great demand, therefore it is necessary to develop competencies of students in accordance with their specialization. I think that the work that began Rusnano in this area, it is necessary to continue and extend to other branches.
When you do some very important work, qualified personnel is always scarce. We see it constantly at the household level, for example. If we want to make repairs in our apartment or cottage, we put great, but oftentimes inefficient, efforts into the search of perfect repairmen. The more difficult the task, the harder it is to find professionals who can do it.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of our practical activities in the field of experimental nanotechnology. In hindsight, I often think about how, back in 1987, we managed to create, in the shortest possible time, almost in 3 months, a commercial scanning probe microscope and to confirm immediately its unique capacity for observation of the atomic lattice of copper (111) and graphite. Nowadays, we clearly understand that the things were so successful, because we had built a unique team of creative and talented scientists and specialists, such as Vladimir Panov, Sergey Savinov, Yuri Moiseyev, Sergey Vasilyev, and Vasily Leonov. The high professionalism backed up by enthusiasm of the years of Perestroika helped to develop and to launch a serial production of scanning tunnel and atomic force microscopes in record time.
The 12th of September 2015 will be 25th anniversary of the Advanced Technologies Center, which is a company working in the area of scanning probe microscopy, the main instrumental method of experimental nanotechnologies. A completely new generation of specialists with new aspirations and skills have been grown during these years. Although the number of electronic technicians who are able to create unique electronic devices has notably decreased, the number of programmers is dramatically growing and digital electronics are significantly advancing. Some conventional industrial occupations, such as turners, millers, toolmakers, metalworkers and others, are disappearing, but machining is moving on a completely different level. Machining units need specialists with professional programmer, designer, and technologist skills.
In 2011 and 2012, we received a substantial support for the purposes of retraining from the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs of Rusnano, which funded our educational project called "NanoTurner"*. The project name has two meanings. Above all, the number of turners and millers is reduced to the "nano" level in modern Russia and all over the world as compared to the period of the Soviet Union. Simultaneously, the modern machining, such as turning, milling, electric sparking, and grinding have achieved a nanometer precision. Thus, the name "NanoTurner" was chosen intentionally. Furthermore, thanks to this program, we managed to launch in 2014 the Russian mass production of digital machining units. Read our article describing this in the current issue of the Nanoindustry magazine. Software, positioning systems, control electronics, control algorithms are almost the same for machining units and for scanning probe microscopes.
Training specialists for Russian nanotech industry is a matter of national importance and universities have enthusiastically joined this initiative. Numerous universities have introduced nanotechnology disciplines in the past five years. For example, the Lomonosov Moscow State University has created the Scientific Educational Center for Nanotechnologies under the guidance of Academician Khokhlov. Open public lectures offered by leading scientists are widely broadcast in the Internet and are distributed on electronic media.
Young people must be actively involved in creative work much a long time before the university. In Soviet times, there were so called Palaces of Pioneers, which were often in a walking distance creating opportunities for children to take part in clubs of crafts and independent work. Unfortunately, this highly elaborate work with schoolchildren and preschoolers has practically come to naught. Nonetheless, attempts to revive such activities have been made taking into account the current challenges and the new levels. Being supported by the Moscow government on this issue, the Center for Advanced Technologies in cooperation with the Lomonosov Moscow State University has created the Nanotechnologies youth innovation creativity center, which provides training courses on nanotechnology, scanning probe microscopy, 3D printers, 3D scanners, digital machining centers. Courses are designed for both university students and secondary school children. Detailed information is on the website of the Center – www.startinnovation.com. Numerous contests are held there, among which the most popular one is titled "My First Plant". Please, visit the Center’s website, read it, get involved and win!
One of the primary challenges for the country’s nanotech industry development is training highly skilled and artful specialists, who can effectively address current and emerging scientific and technological issues.
Comparing the cost of education in the field of nanotechnology in Russia with the average wages, one would say that training in this field is expensive. However, the enrolment competition for nanotech specialties at leading universities of the country is very high. At least, five people compete for each publicly funded place. It should be noted that in some other countries, tuition fees in the field of nanotechnology is significantly lower than in Russia (as compared to average wages) or there may even be no tuition at all if the applicant is a citizen of the country where he or she is enrolled, or is a citizen of the European Union for an EU university. The high cost of education is an issue that makes training in the nanotech industry problematic and impedes the general development of the industry. This problem occurs even though the President has ordered the nanotechnology to be included into the List of Critical Technologies of the Russian Federation.
Nanotechnology strategic planning, as well as scientific, technical and innovational policies require cooperation and developing a common approach used by academicians and educators for human development in the field of nanotechnology. We believe that this goal can be achieved only by interaction with public authorities at various levels, industry and public organizations and associations, including international entities. Unfortunately, Russia still lacks effective mechanisms for coordination of these activities.
These issues are being tackled by the Scientific Team for Interdisciplinary Research and by the International Scientific Team responsible for cooperation with foreign scientific centers in the Nanotechnologies Scientific Educational Center headed by Professor Stanishevsky at the People’s Friendship University of Russia (PFUR). We see that the problem is bigger than just a lack of specialists in the field of nanotechnology, and we believe that a synergistic effect in the industry may be created in the first place by engaging specialists from different fields. In other words, we focus on a multidisciplinary approach to attract talented and creative generators of ideas.
If researchers always agree with their supervisors, if they do not question scientific paradigms, do not try to interpret scientific facts constructively or to create their own intellectual products, they become useless in science and business. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach in the PFUR and combining it with the practice of creating small innovative enterprises in universities, we hope to create a new form of interaction between science and business, particularly, innovative interdisciplinary teams and startup creators that are interested in fundamental and applied research and commercialization of the results of their activities without giving up the academic science. Eagles do not fly in flocks – you must look for them individually. This is what we do by creating a talent pool for the Russian science and business.
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