On 20 April, a foresight session “Alternative and Smart Energy” was held in the conference hall of Voronezh State University. Among the participants were over 20 leading scientists and analysts of the region. The event was held with the support of the regional government.
The audience of the foresight session included representatives from the Institute of Strategic Development, the Centre for Entrepreneurship Support of the Voronezh Region, the FTNET Management Company, the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau, Voronezh State University, and Voronezh State Technical University. The programme of the event consisted of five reports dedicated to scientific developments in the area and a discussion of the possibilities of introducing smart technologies into the regional power generation industry.
The meeting was moderated by Dmitry Zhukalin, Head of the Department of Innovation of Voronezh State University. Dmitry Kostin, VSU Vice-Rector for Research, Innovations, and Digitising, gave a welcome speech on behalf of the university management.
“We understand how important it is to discuss the pressing challenges in the region, especially now, during times of uncertainty. Foresight sessions is a way to solve these challenges and think about the future. During this event, we would like to discuss projects that will be important in the long run,” said Dmitry Kostin.
Sergey Leonidov, General Director of the FTNET Management Company gave a report “Digital transformation with the technology of the industrial Internet of things”. The speaker noted that the introduction of scientific developments into business is an urgent problem. The presentation evolved into a discussion, during which the participants of the foresight session considered alternative actions for integrating the work of scientists and entrepreneurs.
After that, researchers from Voronezh State University and Voronezh State Technical University presented their scientific developments. Svetlana Grushevskaya, Associate Professor at the Department of Physical Chemistry of VSU, gave a talk “Electrochemical synthesised oxide materials in the industry of current generating devices”. Nadezhda Stolpovskaya, Associate Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry of VSU, and Tatyana Stepanova, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Hydraulics, Water Supply, and Water Disposal of Voronezh State Technical University, spoke about the prospects and problems of using biofuels. Sergey Grigoriev, Associate Professor at the Department of Hydraulics, Water Supply, and Water Disposal of Voronezh State Technical University, presented a report dedicated to “Hydrodynamic cavitation technologies in the power generation industry”.
At the end of the meeting, the participants noted the importance of developing the power generation industry in the region and throughout Russia. According to the audience and speakers of the foresight session, the creation and application of new technologies is possible when there is effective bilateral cooperation between the scientific community and business representatives.
