Business news

1 Sep 2023

Lukashenko gets familiar with R&D products of Children’s Technopark

MINSK, 1 September (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko was made familiar with the work of the National Children’s Technopark on Knowledge Day, BelTA has learned.

Aleksandr Lukashenko visited an education and lab wing where he took a close look at the operation of the labs specializing in aerospace technologies, electronics and communications, robot technology, and energy solutions of the future.

The president urged the kids to primarily focus on practical applications. “Create. Do things. If it is useful in life, if it is useful for the country, we will support it,” he assured.

In the electronics and communications lab Aleksandr Lukashenko asked the professor and the students to test Belarusian communications solutions and identify bottlenecks.

“We need cutting-edge communications solutions. Will you be able to help us? Not only with defense applications. Because you are the perspective,” he said.

The kids demonstrated their own system for detecting and tracking the emotional state of people. They informed the head of state about the project and demonstrated it in action. The system tracked emotions of the children when Aleksandr Lukashenko was making a speech during a technopark assembly. What did the faces of the students show? For instance, 63% showed happiness, 18% interest. Pride and respect were also present.

To make it more convincing, the young scientists also scanned emotions of their guests: the president and various officials. In particular, the face of the head of state showed happiness. Faces of other people, who were present, also demonstrated either happiness or interest.

The development of a system for the remote monitoring of agricultural land was also presented before the head of state. Unmanned aerial vehicles help see what lands need more fertilizers.

“It is necessary to arrange a trial run in some agricultural enterprise. They should take these drones and take a look at the fields. So bring your devices. We will organize everything,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Taking a close look at the robot prototypes made in the Children’s Park, the president asked the students how the universal adoption of such devices in the manufacturing sector would affect the labor market.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted as a joke: “I am afraid you will soon remove all the people from the manufacturing process. With what will we keep people busy then?”

The kids noted: “A similar situation happened at the dawn of the industrial revolution. People were afraid of machine tools, afraid that machines would take jobs away from them. But as we can see, a multitude of other professions related to machine tools appeared.” The answer seemed to satisfy the president.

Nuclear energy is also studied in the children’s technopark. The school students have worked out a project for modernizing nuclear power plants in order to reduce maintenance costs, bolster performance and respectively reduce the investment recoupment time. “It is very interesting if it pans out. Hurry up. In science the effect will be greater if you hurry up and get things done faster than others,” the president noted.

“We need you very much, guys. The sooner the better. We are ready to hire you to do jobs at the nuclear power plant at any time. From ordinary operators to the director. You are needed very much,” the head of state said.

In turn, the students noted that they had wanted to visit the nuclear power plant for a long time.

“That’s settled then. You will go. You should see it. It is a unique structure. We will organize passes any day,” the president responded to the request.

The other R&D products demonstrated to the head of state included smart glasses, highly effective coal-based absorbent, a Tetra Pak packaging analog, a speech data security system, and the use of flax manufacturing waste for energy purposes. All of them are commercial prototypes. The head of state emphasized all the time that the kids should bring their R&D products not only to scientific conferences. These products should be polished at enterprises and should be assimilated into the manufacturing sector if possible. He instructed the government and the Minsk city administration to take care of the matter.

“When are we going to seriously take care of import substitution? The things that you demonstrate are nice. But I need movement. If it is import substitution, we will find money for it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Summing up results of the visit, the president addressed reporters: “Did you see genuine advanced people with glowing eyes? The most important thing is to keep the glow in these eyes. And to accomplish that, we have to say either yes or no to their projects. But we need all of them.”

Director of the National Children’s Technopark Sergei Sachko said that today the main task of the institution is to continue the educational and professional trajectory in the life of the kids. “These kids are the future of our state, the manufacturing sector, and agriculture,” he stated.

Since the National Children’s Technopark was established, it has taught 1,930 students of the 9-11 forms and has held 25 educational shifts, with each lasting for 24 days. The average number of candidates per one spot in the technopark stands at three. In the technopark kids get knowledge in 15 areas of the greatest promise to the economy, including green chemistry, nano industry and nano technology, virtual and augmented reality, engineering ecology, aerospace technologies. Leading scientists and specialists of universities, promising young scientists are invited to teach in the technopark.

In the new academic year the technopark intends to introduce academic programs that match the areas of scientific research of Belarus’ Military Academy. The most promising projects of the students focus on ecofriendly packaging and will be patented. There are also plans to arrange classes and hobby groups for students of 5-8 forms.