On September 3, within the framework of the Tatarstan Petrochemical Forum at the Kazan-Expo IEC, the grand opening of the International Network Scientific and Practical Conference «Engineering education in the context of future industrial revolutions - Synergy-2020» and a round table «Personnel, engineering and technological support of enterprises of the petrochemical complex: issues of development of engineering pedagogy».

Traditionally, our University together with the International Society for Engineering Pedagogy (IGIP), the Association for Engineering Education of Russia (AEER) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan organized the conference and the round table. The conference is held jointly with PJSC Gazprom at the company's flagship universities. This year, KNRTU-KAI also joined the round table.

The round table was moderated by Acting Rector of KNRTU Yuri Kazakov and Director of Institute of Additional Professional Education of KNRTU Mansur Galikhanov.

The event was opened by the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan Aleksey Savelchev. He noted that in all key strategic documents of Russia and Tatarstan, special attention is paid to human resources. Deputy Minister said, “We expect higher education to answer to global changes in our leading industries, forecasting and advanced training of specialists in demand”.

AEER President Yuri Pokholkov said, “Today Synergy is opening for the fifth time. The idea to host an international networking conference originated in 2015 at one of the international conferences on engineering education in Florence. It was supported by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and the country's leading universities. Enrich your experience and develop your potential for the benefit of engineering education in Russia!”

Acting Rector of KNRTU Yuri Kazakov greeted the participants and said, “Incredible results have been achieved in five years of the conference. The conference brought together over 4,000 participants, about 500 articles were published in leading scientific journals, Synergy became an example of a productive dialogue within the framework of public-private partnership, primarily on the modernization of educational programs”.

Director of the IGIP Monitoring Committee, Chair of the IGIP / ICL-2020 Conference Organizing Committee Tija Rüytman (Estonia) warmly greeted the participants of the scientific forum in English.

Rustem Usmanov, General Director of Gazprom Transgaz Kazan, said in his video message, “This is a unique project for the introduction of innovations in the field of education, taking into account the needs of the real sector of the economy, primarily the oil and gas chemical industry”.

Round table reports

A plenary report by Acting Rector Yuri Kazakov was devoted to the problems of staffing of enterprises in the petrochemical industry. He said that today 90,000 people work at the leading petrochemical enterprises of the Republic of Tatarstan, and by 2024 this number should rise to 95,000, which presents a real challenge that KNRTU must also face.

The head of the University stressed that the 2020 pandemic has demonstrated success in the implementation of distance and online learning at KNRTU. International partnership is developing, about 2,000 international students study at the University.

During the round table, online reports were presented. Professor Ralph Dreher (University of Siegen, Germany), President of the German IGIP Monitoring Committee, gave a presentation under the intriguing title “Curriculum Development in Engineering Education: “The Leonardo Oath” as a Response to Janus's Double Face in Engineering”.

Professor Irina Burenina, director of the Ufa Higher School of Economics and Management, spoke about the practices of transforming engineering education in the flagship USPTU – Student Academy with individual educational trajectories, project training and other innovative forms of organization of the educational process.

Aleksey Borovkov, Vice-Rector for Advanced Projects of SPbPU, presented a unique model for Advanced Digital Manufacturing Technologies, effectively operating at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in close cooperation with the high-tech industry.

In the second part of the round table, reports were made by representatives of PJSC TATNEFT, Umatex and KNITU-KAI, devoted to applied developments for the petrochemical industry and mechanisms of contractual interaction with enterprises.

The conference and Round Table venue gathered 187 people: 119 people in person at the Kazan Expo IEC and 68 in the online format (on the Zoom platform). The broadcast of the event is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=nOKZDpmjsxY.