‘We Will Be Glad to See Winners of the Olympiad among Our Prospective Students’
In early April, the final round of the engineering profile of the Moscow Pre-Professional Olympiad was held at HSE MIEM. Fifty teams (about 200 school students) from Moscow took part in the competition. As a result, 52 participants received awards.
On the first day of the olympiad, teams defended engineering solutions to case problems and solved interdisciplinary problems in physics and computer science. On the second day, the participants demonstrated their competencies in the field of electronics, 3D modelling, engineering and programming when solving the final case assignment. This year, the teams had six hours to develop a manipulator magnetometer that automatically scans the surrounding space, detects ferromagnetic objects, and builds a map of the magnetic field.
The Moscow Pre-professional Olympiad helps to identify high school students who are strong in classical subjects such as physics, computer science and mathematics, but its main task is to support talented schoolchildren interested in practical engineering and project activities, explains Alexey Rolich, Senior Lecturer at the HSE School of Computer Engineering, Chairman of the Methodological Committee of the Olympiad’s engineering profile.
‘This year, many strong teams who have effectively demonstrated the results of their engineering work took part in the event,’ says Rolich. ‘We will be glad to see winners of the Olympiad among our prospective students, and they will be able to fully implement their engineering potential within the framework of the HSE project approach to specialist training.’
The winners of the engineering profile of the Moscow Pre-professional Olympiad enjoy benefits (enrolment without entrance exams, points for individual achievements) when applying to HSE University degree programmes.
The Pre-professional Olympiad has established itself as a significant event that allows schoolchildren to gain real engineering knowledge and additional points for admission, says Dmitry Bobrikov, expert, head of the admissions support department at the National Research University of Electronic Technology. ‘The engineering profile is perhaps the most difficult of all profiles, because students need a wide range of knowledge to solve the tasks,’ he adds. ‘This year the finalists demonstrated great skills. I want to believe that after a deep dive into the engineering profession, the participants will find their place in the professional environment.’
The participants also shared their impressions of the competition.
Andrey Grigoriev, Moscow, School No. 1103, 10th grade, team Kvant
‘I liked everything! The tasks were interesting, although there were some difficulties with the final one, since we were using a Hall effect sensor for the first time. We managed to assemble the 3D model, the electrical circuit, and the manipulator, but we lacked some time to write a full-fledged code.’
Members of team Daily, Moscow, School No. 1363
‘On the first day, we successfully defended the case. In the evening of the same day, we solved problems and answered questions. These were quite difficult, as we were tired and the task was not easy, but it was still very interesting to see what we were capable of in such circumstances. On the second day of the final round, our team faced an even more difficult task—to solve a case in six hours.
The Olympiad gave us an opportunity to try something new. Our team came together, and we learned a lot about programming, 3D modelling and other areas of our profile.’
Victoria Karimova, Zelenograd, School No. 1150, 9th grade, team Tresk
‘The Pre-professional Olympiad is an interesting but difficult challenge. By participating in it, you learn a lot of new things that you can only learn when working on a case, but which will definitely be useful to you in the future. The first day of the final round and the defence of the project were interesting and exciting. We had to do our best to make the project work. This is a good test of whether you know how to act in an emergency. The second day of the final round was an even more exciting adventure. We had to apply all our skills, knowledge and talent, and teamwork was also important.’
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