The System of Continuing Education at the Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM

From 1930 to 1991 our country built a well-structured system of agroengineering higher education institutions and faculties of mechanization that, for 90 years, effectively developed and operated solving the problem of training engineering personnel for the evolving mechanized agriculture. The collapse of the USSR caused dramatic changes in the country system of agricultural engineering education. As a result of numerous reorganizations and reforms in the Russian system of higher education, agroengineering universities ceased to exist independently and had to join agricultural universities. The mergers and integration of research institutions and the establishment of large federal research centers on their basis have made it expedient to implement a continuing professional education system (master’s, postgraduate, doctoral studies).The Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM is developing the system of continuing professional education for training modern agricultural engineering personnel in the field of automation, robotization, digital technologies. A current target of the Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM is the implementation of Master’s degree programs.

Problems of training engineering personnel in Russia

Mechanical engineering as an industry needs modernizing to maintain a sufficient level of competitiveness. The existing education system is not able to fully provide enterprises with qualified staff. This is due to a gap between the level of knowledge obtained in an educational institution and the enterprise real needs. To bridge the gap, more attention should be paid to personnel training and retraining. The article identifies the problems of educating future engineers, proposes an appropriate set of measures providing for a three-level transformation: at the level of government, regions and enterprises; considers a model for training staff of a machine-building enterprise and also suggests building regional training and internship centres. Such centres will make it possible not only to train workers, to conduct internships for students and employees, but also to provide internships for future engineers, to acquaint them with the production specifics. Such internships will ensure young specialists’ consolidation, allow them to interact more effectively with enterprises, and create for them an additional incentive to stay in the region. Furthermore, a favourable image of a machine-building worker, engineer, innovator, and ordinary worker should be formed.

Innovative methods of training qualified engineering personnel for the agribusiness

The state of the system of current engineering education is given. It has been identified that the engineering training of personnel requires a constant transformation of the educational process. The methodological and scientific approaches implemented in the training of technical specialists are disclosed. A model of the transformation of engineering education at the engineering faculty of the Ulyanovsk State Agrarian University, which since 1950 has been conducting high-quality training of engineers according to current programs of higher education, is presented

REGULATORY AND INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR DESIGN AND OPERATION OF ASPIRATION SYSTEMS IN WOODWORKING

The report reflects the results of the analysis of the state of technical regulation of the design and operation of aspiration systems in woodworking, the presence of problems in ensuring their functional, energy efficiency and safety, the practice of training technical personnel and engineering personnel. The information on the direction of research of the properties of crushed wood, the operation of equipment, the development of technical regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Belarus, the implementation of the results in the educational process. National, foreign regulatory and technical documents and sources of information, materials of conferences held abroad were used.

Methane Injury-Risk at the Russian Mines

Conditions are given concerning the development of methane-bearing coal seams in Russia, the chronology of injuries from explosions and outbreaks of methane-air mixtures at the Russian mines for a quarter of a century of developing coal seams at the nine deposits. The emergency was studied in 174 mine incidents, which occurred mainly at the mines of Kuzbass, Vorkuta coal deposit, Eastern Donbass, Chelyabinsk basin, Primorye and Sakhalin. Emergency objects - excavation areas, preparation faces and mined-out areas of the mines. The sources of ignition of methane-air mixture are drilling and blasting works in the faces, malfunctioning of electrical equipment, frictional sparking, endogenous fires, and smoking in the mines. The most injury-risk for methane are steep and steeply inclined mines. The need in the scientific substantiation of the decisions taken for prevention or reduction of the methane injury-risk at the mines is noted in the article. An important role is assigned to the choice of ways to achieve this goal considering the geological and mining conditions of the development of gas-bearing coal seams. As an example, the conditions, methods, and parameters of mining operations at the excavation areas of four mines are given, where occurred the catastrophic explosions of methane-air and methane-dust-air mixtures. The reasons are gross violations of safety rules during mining operations, incompetence of the mine engineering personnel, design, and control organizations in matters of safety during the underground work at the gas-hazardous mines with an extensive network of workings. This resulted in the death of miners and mine rescuers, the destruction of mine workings, equipment and devices, underground fires. Recommendations are given for reducing the level of methane injury-risk at the methane-rich mines.

Mutual Integration of Information and Mathematical Training for Engineers in the Digitization Era

The article is devoted to the study of the development of interdisciplinary integration on the example of the disciplines «Computer Science» and «Mathematics» in training future engineers in the digitization era. It is considered the trends and directions for development of engineering education at the world level, among which a special role is given to the CDIO approach for implementing interdisciplinary training of future engineering personnel on the base of student-centered learning. It is revealed that information and mathematical modeling is the system-forming factor in the integration of knowledge in Computer Science and Mathematics. It is proposed a classification of IMM on the basis of which it is possible to create integrated educational and practical tasks with interdisciplinary content. In the experimental part of the research methods of questionnaire, survey, experiment are involved. In order to realize mutual integration of information and mathematical training the authors developed the scheme of implementation of the models in independent work of students throughout the entire training at ecosystem of technical university. It is defined student-centered learning technology and it is formulated the methodological recommendations for its implementation of the processes of mutual integration of the disciplines in the process of its teaching to students of engineering specialties of universities

Professional Retraining in the Staffing System for the Mining Enterprises

The issues are considered related to providing mining enterprises with the engineering personnel capable of managing mining and blasting operations. At present, not all the mining enterprises have a full staff of specialists and managers who are legally entitled to manage mining and blasting operations. Some employees who previously had such a right, after changes in the legal framework, ceased to meet the new requirements. The analysis is presented concerning the competencies required to perform these production functions, as well as educational programs that allow acquiring these competencies. The importance of professional retraining programs for solving these problems and the imperfection of the modern regulatory framework, which practically excludes the possibility of obtaining the right to manage mining and blasting operations, even after professional retraining for persons with a higher technical education in a non-mining profile, are shown in the article. An integrated approach is proposed for resolving the issues of the admissibility of obtaining the right to manage mining and blasting operations by these persons considering a number of factors: basic education, work experience and positions held at a mining enterprise, completed training in programs of additional education and professional retraining. Such programs should be developed and implemented by the organizations with experience in training mining engineers and having a license from Rosobrnadzor for the right to implement programs not only for additional professional education, but also for higher professional mining education. The need is substantiated in developing professional standards for managers of mining and blasting operations at the enterprises for the extraction of solid minerals. Recommendations were developed for amending the federal rules and regulations in the field of industrial safety in order to ensure the possibility of using professional retraining programs for training and final certification of the managers of mining and blasting operations.

Development of E-Learning in a Modern Technical University

The article is devoted to the increasing role and prospects for the development of e-learning in modern transformation of higher polytechnic education. In the context of preventing the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 and the transition of universities to various forms of distance education, this issue is of particular relevance. The aim of the study is to assess the process of introducing e-learning into the educational process of higher technical educational institutions in Russia. The methodological basis of the work was the analytical and systematic approach to the study of the object of research using methods of data systematization, evaluative analysis and forecasting, as well as logical generalization. The authors come to the conclusion that the introduction of e-learning in technical universities in Russia until recently played a supporting role in the reorganization and optimization of the processes of training engineering personnel. The development of e-learning helped to reduce the costs of the educational process, reduce the number of employees, as well as solve the problem of the classroom fund. An important role in the development of e-learning was played by the desire to increase the rating indicators. The desire to expand non-budgetary sources of funding for modern technical universities and the possibility of implementing new learning models were only additional incentives for expanding the e-learning system. The results of this study can be used in further studying the digitalization of higher education and assessing the prospects for the development of professional training in Russia.