South Ural State University (SUSU) and Shenyang Institute of Technology (SIT) have many years of experience in implementing joint projects. This year, rectors of the two universities have opened a joint student training program and a new laboratory. Irina Potoroko, Director of the SUSU School of Medical Biology, tells us more about this.
– In September, SUSU and SIT successfully launched a joint Bachelor's degree program using the "2+2" system, which is implemented at the School of Medical Biology at our university. What are the mutual interests of Chelyabinsk and Shenyang in launching the new Bioengineering educational program? Please tell us about the expected effects of such collaboration.
- The joint educational program integrates competencies in biotechnology and bioengineering, and its goal is applied bioengineering for the rational use of raw materials in the agro-industrial complex. Our mutual interest is to conduct the educational process using the project-based learning algorithm, the digital department platform, which can be not only educational, but also scientific. In addition, the main goal is for students to learn how to develop and bring a food product to production.
The developed joint program provides, firstly, fundamental knowledge in bioengineering and biotechnology; secondly, it forms applied competencies. We intend to integrate all bioengineering competencies that the Chinese university provides to students with biotechnological competencies and experience in this area of research at SUSU. It is important that we also work to meet the needs of our industrial partners: we strive to improve the sensory and organoleptic profiles of food products, and teach students how to competently model the usefulness and "tastiness" of food products.
In essence, jointly with our foreign colleagues, we are creating an applied program that will teach our students the rational use of food resources. Upon the completion of the training program two diplomas will be awarded that of Shenyang Institute of Technology (SIT) and of SUSU. The first four semesters (1st and 2nd years) Chinese students will study at their home university, and then (3rd and 4th years) − at SUSU, where they will defend their final theses. It is important that the graduate's scientific development must be applied and interesting for the target group of consumers. An official ceremony was held for the fifteen guys who enrolled in the first year of this unique Bachelor's degree program. And in my opinion it is an excellent result. We will see our foreign students at SUSU in two years. They will live and study in our Chelyabinsk Interuniversity Campus, where today there are so many amenities for living, and in the future ‑ for scientific creativity.
– How will Chinese and Russian students study under the new Bachelor’s degree program and what will they learn?
– The training system under the joint Bioengineering program is "2+2". It assumes that the first two years the student studies in China, after which s/he comes to Chelyabinsk for the subsequent period of study (two years). This training mechanism has been well studied and tested, including in other structural divisions of our university. We have compiled a curriculum agreed upon with colleagues from SIT, which takes into account all the differences in the structure and content of the educational process. The disciplines that students learn at SIT are consistent in content with those taught at our university. This will allow us to implement the practice of recertification, and if necessary, we will additionally compensate for some didactic units during the training.
We will build the educational process taking into account current partnership interests, investing in the educational program those competencies that the industry expects, so that the future specialist is in demand on the market.
– In what language will such a Bachelor’s degree program be taught?
– The educational program is implemented in Chinese and Russian. For those admitted to the program, a course of in-depth study of the Russian language will be organized at the Pushkin Institute Centre (opened by SUSU in 2018) at Tianjin Foreign Studies University. To smoothly immerse students in the Russian-speaking environment in the second year, leading teachers of the SUSU Department of Food Technology and Biotechnology will conduct classes on such disciplines as "Fundamentals of Biotechnology" and "Nutraceuticals and Human Ecology". For students from the Shenyang Institute of Technology, this is a unique offer since these disciplines are not taught there.
– During the recent visit of the SUSU delegation to the Shenyang Institute, the parties signed an agreement on the opening of the International China-Russia Joint Laboratory for Bioresources Processing. Why is such an international laboratory needed and what research does the China-Russia research team plan to conduct there?
– Scientific experiments will be conducted in Russia and China simultaneously. Scientists are implementing joint projects financed by the governments, societies and foundations of both countries, which will allow for the development of bilateral movement on relevant research topics using the scientific potential of universities. The laboratories are already carrying out research work. Our research team will conduct the most relevant and innovative research, including analysis of the safety of agricultural raw materials and by-products; development of a disinfection technology based on the use of non-thermal effects of cold plasma; this is also the development of enzymatic technologies for processing secondary agricultural resources for animal feed with an improved utility profile; development of sonochemical technologies for the intensification of bioconversion processes. We will exchange the obtained developments with our Chinese colleagues, which will allow us to formulate the most rational proposals for the industry in the future.
– What kind of intellectual scientific exchange is possible with colleagues from Shenyang? Please tell us about the groundwork of SUSU and SIT in the field of bioresources processing and why the exchange of ideas is important and useful for both sides.
– The cooperation between SUSU and SIT has been built up over several years, it is formed with an understanding of the resources that each educational institution has. Our scientific partners have a good material base in terms of laboratory applications for food production: they have entire mini-lines for the production of individual types of products. The most important thing that interests us personally is that they implement traceability mechanisms: they grow food raw materials in their province and look for ways to process them, which allows them to minimize the risks of deviations in the chain of goods distribution in a timely manner. The development of their fermentation production technologies was of particular interest to us, as well as the close interaction of SIT with industrial partner-manufacturers of products in this segment.
Their educational program in bioengineering provides for an in-depth study of plant materials to identify the most valuable components, including for extraction, determining significant points of the technological process for the qualitative and quantitative preservation of such components in the final product. The Faculty of Fundamental and Applied Sciences of the Shenyang Institute of Technology trains specialists in the field of bioengineering of bioresources processing.
Our joint work is focused on forecasting and designing a model of a future product: analysis of input indicators for the entire list of food components of raw materials will allow us to form a data array to ensure the technology of a finished useful product. Chinese colleagues are also deeply involved in the fermentation processes of food raw materials, which will be a worthy addition to our joint scientific work.
When we assessed the curricula and educational programs of training areas at the Shenyang Institute of Technology, we understood what is being studied at the Chinese institute and how this can be refracted within the framework of competence development at our university. In my opinion, our biotechnologies and their bioengineering are a worthy symbiosis for obtaining new results for the food industry. And I am very impressed that at the moment fifteen people are ready to start such a project − this will strengthen the new line of inter-university cooperation.