When several years ago the first brick of the innovation center was laid in Skolkovo near Moscow, it was decided from the very beginning that the research would be mainly aimed at solving the most pressing and urgent problems. To this end, in addition to prominent Russian scientists who returned home from the world's leading universities, key researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were invited to collaborate. A symposium was held at the Digital October center yesterday, during which two research centers talked about areas of collaboration and reported on its results.
If you think about which priority areas are related to solving the issue of improving the welfare of our country, the following immediately come to mind: computing technology, medicine, space, energy and entrepreneurship. These are the issues that the best minds of Skoltech deal with, and it was to them that the reports were held, which were held in parallel mode.
Russian science rarely gives journalists the opportunity to learn in detail about what they are working on now, so such an openness of experts could not but surprise, and in a pleasant sense. During the presentations, scientists not only spoke about the basic goals and challenges associated with their work, but also spoke about the results achieved.
For example, in Skoltech, Anton Burns, a professor at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, is exploring the possibilities of stem cells to search for effective treatment of deadly diseases. Alessandro Golkar from the Skoltech Space Center is developing a cloud computing network for spacecraft, which will have to come to court in the coming years due to the inevitable increase in activity in the field of space travel. By the way, his achievements in Skoltech have already received international recognition: this year Golkar won the prestigious award named after Luigi Napolitano.
With regard to energy, here, researchers have demonstrated competence in matters of the current state of affairs and prospects of the industry in our country. For this reason, the development is carried out in several directions: increasing the rationalization and efficiency of the use of hydrocarbons, the development of fundamentally new "smart" energy systems and the development of alternative energy sources. Special attention was paid to the improvement of atomic energy, which still has serious prospects.
When asked why scientists from MIT agreed to move to Skoltech, the answer was the same: in the Russian center, foreign researchers are given more freedom and independence than in their own university. This allows you to bypass many unnecessary restrictions and achieve more impressive results.
But any innovative advances would be worthless if the researchers did not take into account the question of how to turn these inventions into real money, and with the most prompt payback. A separate round table was devoted to a discussion of the understanding of how important it is to be able not only to invent, but also successfully earn from the generated intellectual property.
First, Skoltech student Ekaterina Kotenko told about how, in parallel with her studies at the institute, she decided to create ImageAiry startup, a kind of market for buying and selling images from the air and from space. Catherine spoke about the benefits of entrepreneurship in the status of a student, the main ones being the possibility of receiving free counseling from teachers and a chance for a mistake that in youth does not seem so painful as in a more mature age.
In conclusion, Skoltech managers and high-ranking representatives of MIT held a panel discussion with the participation of Russian and foreign scientists and entrepreneurs, where they discussed issues related to the monetization of the achievements of Russian science. The panelists agreed that, despite the deep-seated cliches and a distorted understanding of entrepreneurship, Russian science is gradually turning from focusing on basic research to finding practical application of its achievements in the market. Cooperation between Skoltech and MIT will certainly accelerate this process, but it is difficult to say how many such projects need to be implemented in order for the profession of a scientist in our country to become truly prestigious.
The article is based on materials .
Comments
Post a Comment