Next Milestone Reached in NMSTU-France Relations
- Published: Friday, 02 August 2019 03:26
Apart from student mobility, the Erasmus+ programme implemented at the Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University also encompasses staff mobility. Thus, Dmitry Konstantinov, who is in charge of NMSTU’s international affairs office, took part in a two-week-long summer school in Additive Manufacturing, which took place at Ecole National d’Ingenieurs de Saint-Etienne (ENISE) in France this summer.
Dmitry presented a series of lectures on additive manufacturing to students from all over the world – France, USA, Canada, England, Russia, Belorussia, Asian region. The lectures focused on the subject of multiscale finite element modelling.
“I am engaged in the field of metal forming. To be more precise, wire drawing. You might wonder what it has to do with additive manufacturing. The thing is that those methods and techniques that I told students and young researchers about are in fact universal and can be used in any field of engineering. One could use the finite element method to simulate blood flowing through somebody’s heart or bone damage or air flowing around a moving car or production processes in the most general terms. That’s why after my lecture I was approached by both students from Belorussia engaged in microfibres and students from Asia who study composite materials. In spite of a seemingly wide gap between the subjects, my lectures seemed to be of interest to would-be experts from different fields,” commented Dmitry.
The presentations given by other lecturers were of astonishingly futuristic nature. For example, 3D printing is now used in many industries: from gastronomy to civil engineering to medicine to clothing industry. It is no longer about some cool looking prototypes that only exist on paper. Today it is rather about trivial things of everyday use. At the same time, the additive technology does not aim to replace all the conventional production techniques. The future belongs to a win-win approach integrating classical processing technology with cutting-edge techniques delivering unique capabilities.
With the above in mind, the partnership between our universities is evolving to display some new perspectives.
“Till recently, our cooperation with ENISE was constrained to education. During the recent summer school, due to our massive involvement with the industry, we managed to find a common ground in the field of practical processing technology that combines our fundamental practical achievements with most recent trends in additive manufacturing. I would really like to see this lay the basis for our joint research projects. We identified some universal competences that both our universities strive to deliver. On these grounds we are now elaborating a three-party cooperation agreement involving two French partners – i.e. Jeanne Monnet University and ENISE. In the future this agreement will enable NMSTU students to do international Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and acquire four diplomas: Russian and French Bachelor’s degree diplomas and Russian and French Master’s degree diplomas. From career perspective, the graduates of the programme will be able to find jobs not only in Russia but throughout Europe,” added Dmitry.
This year NMSTU and Jeanne Monnet University signed another academic mobility agreement as part of the EU funded Erasmus+ programme. This autumn undergraduates from the Institute of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Processing are to go study in France for one semester. The programme will cover all the expenses incurred by the participants during their 6-month stay abroad.
