On Thursday, April 6, as part of a working visit to Tatarstan, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov has visited KAMAZ PTC.
Among the guests were Rais (Head) of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Governor of Tomsk Oblast Vladimir Mazur, Director of Public Strategy Institute of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO Andrey Volkov, Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan Ilsur Khadiullin, Rector of Tomsk State University Eduard Galazhinskiy, Rector of Kazan Federal University Lenar Safin, and other leaders.
Accompanied by Sergey Kogogin, General Director of KAMAZ, Head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov and other members of the delegation visited the company's production sites and R&D Center on the territory of which an exhibition of innovative KAMAZ vehicles was organized. The Minister was shown a KAMAZ-6290 fuel cell bus, a KAMAZ-6299 articulated bus, a KAMAZ-65119 self-driving vehicle (Argo), a KAMAZ-6559 cabless autonomous truck (Jupiter 30), and other models.
A number of new vehicles were shown in operation – a Moskvich 3e electric car, a KAMAZ-54901, a KAMAZ-6561 dump truck (Hercules), and other trucks in demand on the Russian market. In addition, the guests were given an opportunity to personally evaluate the advantages of some new products during a test drive. Also, on this day, the members of the delegation were presented with the project of the ATOM passenger electric car developed with the participation of KAMAZ.
The main purpose of Valery Falkov's working visit to Naberezhnye Chelny was to participate in an alignment meeting with the heads of Advanced Engineering Schools (AES). The event organized on the initiative of KAMAZ PTC with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation took place at the site of Naberezhnye Chelny’s IT Park. The goal of the Advanced Engineering Schools federal project is to provide high–performance sectors of the country's economy with qualified personnel.
In his welcoming speech, Head of KAMAZ Sergey Kogogin spoke about the company's long-term cooperation with schools, colleges and universities, and participation in the personnel training process. "Today we are very much counting on the progress of Advanced Engineering Schools. We are probably one of the first in the country who actively supported this initiative. The total amount of financing, which according to the agreement is ours, is 600 million rubles. We will spend more if necessary. The main thing is that the school develops and gives what we want today in terms of the development of the design speed, staff training," he said.
Sergey Kogogin also said that, in general, the company expects from educational institutions whose representatives attended the seminar, "Of course, we wish university education was based on modern methods of production management and advanced technologies, and we wish students could immediately work at our company after graduation from their universities. Students should study things in advance of what is needed today. This is the task we are to solve – how to adapt the curriculum." In addition, the head noted that innovative developments made by KAMAZ in cooperation with universities were significant for the company. For example, several projects are being implemented with the participation of Bauman Moscow State Technical University, and this work is yielding good results.
"Today, enterprises are in such a situation that issues need to be resolved very quickly. The world is very dynamic, and we need non-trivial solutions, extraordinary moves. Our Advanced Engineering Schools are now engaged in solving urgent problems. This is a community of the right teams, and they are able to respond to the challenges of our industry," Valery Falkov stressed in his speech. He also said that in 2022, 30 Advanced Engineering Schools were established on the basis of Russia's leading universities selected on a competitive basis from among 90 applicants. Russian companies quickly joined the work as industrial partners. Today, students are already studying at these schools, and each participates in solving real engineering problems.
In total, about 150 people participated in the alignment meeting. Among them are representatives of all Advanced Engineering Schools and leading Russian universities, heads of high–tech partner companies, as well as representatives of federal executive and legislative authorities. The aim of this meeting is let the heads of Advanced Engineering Schools exchange their experience. One of these schools was established in Naberezhnye Chelny at the premises of KFU with the active assistance of the industrial partner – the city-forming company KAMAZ.
Valery Falkov noted that the school of KAMAZ and Kazan Federal University is one of three Advanced Engineering Schools organized in Tatarstan. "Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the school was created on the basis of the Naberezhnye Chelny branch of KFU, in close proximity to the production. I believe that this is one of the deepest dives and the most serious involvement on the part of the industrial partner, if we take all 30 Russian schools. KAMAZ is the leader in terms of the amount of funds invested, which is more than 600 million rubles. Head of the company Sergey Anatolyevich Kogogin and his entire team are personally involved in this work," stressed the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.
In his speech, Rais (Head) of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov highly assessed KAMAZ’s innovative activity and interaction with universities. He said KAMAZ was one of the companies "that for many years have been national leaders in innovation and the number of projects implemented jointly with universities".
During the alignment meeting, the participants discussed the key tasks for the current year, noted the need for networking between Advanced Engineering Schools, worked out a plan for the implementation of AES development programs and formed appropriate roadmaps. It is planned to scale the best practices of organizing the work of the Advanced Engineering School.
KAMAZ continues to implement projects relevant to the country. In accordance with national priorities, the company's engineers are developing a number of areas that contribute to strengthening Russia's technological sovereignty. In addition to expanding the product line in response to current global trends, much attention is paid to interaction with educational institutions and improving the practice orientation of Russian education. Now, for a country that has always been distinguished by a strong engineering school, it is especially necessary that modern specialists possess advanced technologies.