Students of Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI) recently presented some of their scientific projects, and, honestly speaking, their innovations heat the imagination of not only ordinary people.

MEPhI’s student K. Ovakimyan developed the concept of multi-purpose exoskeletons. Exoskeleton is a special costume, which extends human physical abilities, for instance, when a human being wears exoskeleton, he can lift very heavy things or move very fast. Many countries have projects on exoskeletons for various purposes (military needs, for example), where engineers use electric motors and rigid frames, which make costumes too heavy and large and their energy demand enormous. Russian student suggests using artificial muscles, made of carbon nanomaterials: nano-tubes, fullerenes and graphene. Various types of radiation make carbon nano-tubes change their length, thus creating useful effort. The question of electric motors drops. Now Russian scientists work on protecting artificial muscles from collapse under conditions of multiple tractions.

MEPhI’s professor V. Panin introduced the notion “magnetic weight”. Two turns of magnetic antenna create a magnetic field inside a small cabin. When someone enters the cabin, magnetic field changes, and a tiny gage unit detects this change, which is called “magnetic weight”. This parameter is shown to correspond with human physical weight. The system, created in MEPhI, is much cheaper than checkpoints that are already installed at many secure facilities (banks or power plants) and measure human physical weight.

 

 

These innovative projects are the result of hard work of MEPhI’s teachers. About ten years ago Centre of Student Initiatives appeared. Later in 2001, the Centre turned into Student Incubator of High Technologies, where young innovators learn to plan business processes and take part in all stages of innovative chain – from idea generation to creation of start-up companies. Every year Student Incubator organizes internet-conferences of young businessmen, who also are innovators. Over 200 hundred of students from many Russian higher educational institutions usually participate in these conferences. Experts, who are teachers of MEPhI and employers of the technological park, choose projects, containing the strongest innovative part. These projects have a chance to win funding within the “YMNIK” (English translation of this abbreviation is “Participant of Science and Innovation Contest for Young Scientists”) programme.

Student Incubator of High Technologies exists for about eight years, and its alumni worked out over 30 business plans for innovative projects. In 2004 as much as six projects of MEPhI students won funding within “START” programme, which allows scientists, who obtained some scientific results, to establish an innovative company. Within said programme funding covers three years of such company’s activities with 11 million rubles (about $300 thousand).

Source: Science & Technologies

Kizilova Anna