The international internship programme of four graduate students from the People's Republic of China at St. Petersburg Mining University has come to an end. All of them successfully defended their graduate theses and returned to their homeland. On the eve of their departure, Forpost asked the guests of the city on the Neva what expectations they had a year ago about studying at Russia's oldest technical university and how much reality justified them.
All four young people represent the Chinese University of Mining and Technology (CUMT). This is a very prestigious university, where about 40,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from all over the Celestial Empire study. For example, Ma Junqiang, whose research interests are related to increasing labour safety in coal mines, comes from Gangu County, Gansu Province, known as the birthplace of Fuxi, the first emperor of China. He is said to have lived for 175 years, of which he ruled the country for 116 years.
According to Ma Junqiang, his internship programme included mastering the basic scientific competence "Philosophy of Science", as well as a series of laboratory and computational experiments. There was no talk of using any innovative developments of the St. Petersburg university scientists; from the very beginning, the parties agreed that all research would be carried out on the basis of already existing methods and materials that did not require intellectual property protection.
"At St. Petersburg Mining University, I conducted research aimed at improving coal mining technologies. During my stay in Russia, I published one article in a journal included in the first quartile of the Scopus database. As for my expectations, in general they were met. I knew that the history of your country is inextricably linked with mining, which means that your specialists and professors have accumulated vast experience in the field of solid minerals extraction, so I expected to gain new knowledge and skills in this area. And so it happened. Especially interesting were the classes related to the management of the state of the rock mass, which is very important for combating rock impacts and improving the safety of miners. I am sure it will help me in my future academic research and work," Ma Junqiang shared his impressions of the internship.
His colleague Liang Shuai Shuai explained that coal seams in many regions of China are characterised by high water saturation, making the threat of mine flooding one of the most serious problems threatening the safety of miners. Finding solutions that minimise such risks are among the most important tasks for Chinese science.
"At St Petersburg Mining University, I continued research in this direction, as I had planned. These were, first of all, laboratory experiments aimed at determining the regularities that change the stress-strain state of coal seams. I also worked on creating a numerical model of hydrodynamic coupling, i.e. the interaction between rock and fluid, and the influence of plugging on this process, which allowed me to identify its optimal thickness at different horizons," said Liang Shuai Shuai.
Yang Zhang, another PhD student from the PRC, specialises in the study of hydraulic fracturing technology used to improve the efficiency of hydrocarbon production, particularly natural gas. He is confident that coal, which currently accounts for over 60% of China's total energy consumption, will gradually give way to other, cleaner energy sources, especially blue fuel. This means that the demand for engineers and scientists capable of meeting the growing demand for this resource will become noticeably higher in the foreseeable future.
"Russia is one of the largest oil and gas producers in the world. Advanced technologies for their extraction have been developed and implemented here. I hoped that the internship would allow me to familiarise myself with them and improve the productivity of the fracking methods I was working on. The reality has exceeded my expectations. All the instructors I worked with were not only professionals, but also very helpful people," said Yang Zhang.
He specified that at the Mining University he worked primarily on solutions related to the use of liquid nitrogen in hydraulic fracturing of dry and saturated oil shale, as well as the study of rock fracture characteristics at different injection rates.
"This internship provided me with the opportunity to network with many experts in the oil and gas field. I also learnt about the culture of the different ethnicities inhabiting Russia, which is important for improving mutual understanding between our nations and states. When I return to China, where I will defend my doctoral thesis, I will definitely apply the experience gained at the Mining University. In addition, I will continue to communicate with my Russian supervisor online, which will allow me to enrich my knowledge of hydraulic fracturing and become a sought-after specialist in this field of training in the future," emphasised Yang Zhang.
It goes without saying that the internship programme for four CUMT PhD students in St. Petersburg is by no means the only partnership project between the two institutions of higher education. The parties are actively working on the development of academic mobility, the creation of collaborations for research and the publication of joint articles in highly rated scientific journals. A delegation from the Chinese university headed by President Song Xiufeng is scheduled to visit the City on the Neva in mid-November. During his meeting with Rector Vladimir Litvinenko, he plans to discuss the prospects for intensifying co-operation.
As for cooperation with China in general, today 42 students and postgraduates from the Celestial Empire study at the Mining University. And the plans, without any exaggeration, include a megaproject related to the construction of the Russian-Chinese Mineral Resources University. It envisages that the construction of two educational centres for the full-time education of five thousand students in engineering disciplines of a wide profile will soon begin in St. Petersburg and in Ordos, the industrial capital of Inner Mongolia. The new structure will be tasked not only with producing competent specialists, but also with developing bilateral relations in the scientific and educational spheres.