The results of the BASF RESEARCH ideas competition were announced in the White Hall of VSU. Students and postgraduate students of VSU competed in the following nominations: Synergy of technologies, Just like Dokuchaev, and Safe crops.
The participants were instructed to send their ideas in the form of presentations and then to extend their projects by adding a practical component and suggesting how it could be implemented. On 26 May, the participants of the competition presented their projects to Vice-Rector for Research, Innovations, and Digitising at VSU Oleg Kozaderov, Head of the Department of Innovations and Enterprise at VSU Dmitry Zhukalin, and Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry Victor Semenov. On the part of the BASF company, the projects were analysed by Head of the Sales Team of the Department for Agricultural Solutions Artem Vidusov, Strategic Marketing Manager Sergey Kucherenko, and Sales Technical Support Manager Elena Melnikova.
Marina Mishina, Anastasia Yarichina, and Ekaterina Gaiterova from the Faculty of Pharmaceutics took first place. They presented an “Ecobox” aimed at the reduction of ecological risks associated with pollution by pharmaceutical waste.
Alexander Dunilin’s team, also consisting of the students from the Faculty of Pharmaceutics, took second place. Their idea is the creation of an application called VetAssist that would allow the following:
- Search for relevant information on veterinary drugs.
- Optimise the process of purchase of drugs for veterinary use and create a rational range.
- Provide informational support for the manufacture of drugs.
- Provide specialists with professional pharmaceutical knowledge for the distribution of veterinary drugs.
- Monitor the efficiency and safety of drugs as part of the pharmacovigilance system.
Andrey Sorokin, a postgraduate student from the Faculty of Chemistry, took third place. He suggested an idea of designing a carrier for the prolonged release of plant protection remedies with the properties of a superabsorbent. The project is aimed at the solution of a number of problems relating to plant growth:
- In case of it being successfully implemented there will be preconditions for the development and introduction of carriers of various agricultural substances with selective and prolonged action.
- Carriers can protect plants from drought and the soil from wind and water erosion. Their actions are also aimed at the reduction of fertiliser runoff.
- Compositional carriers have lower production cost as compared to non-biodegradable commercial analogues while preserving the same performance characteristics.
Each team that reached the final received 10 thousand roubles. The winners were awarded with the certificates for 50 thousand roubles, the prizes for second and third places were 35 and 20 thousand roubles, respectively.
