Moscow Aviation Institute

The MAI-SJTU Joint Institute invites students completing the 4th year of bachelor's degree to the international Russian-Chinese master's degree program.

The MAI-SJTU Joint Master's Degree program is an international project implemented by the Moscow Aviation Institute and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The project is aimed at training highly qualified specialists in the field of modern aircraft.

Students from different countries study in joint groups entirely in English. The first year of study takes place in Shanghai, the second year of study – in Moscow.

Moscow Aviation Institute is the best aerospace university in Russia. Shanghai Jiaotong University is among the top 50 universities in the world. In two and a half years of study, you will receive two diplomas from two leading universities.

There are 3 leading directions in the Master's program:

Designing of aircraft structures made of polymer composite materials.
Aircraft engines.
Product lifecycle management technologies in the designing of modern aircraft.
Admission to the Master's program is open until June 1, 2022.

To find out the details of admission, follow the link to the website https://mai-sjtu.ru/mai-sjtu-international.

Dear women, we congratulate you on the spring holiday – International Women's Day!

Every day you make the world a better place, fill it with your love, tenderness and kindness. Together with you, we share and live the most important and vivid events of our lives. You create a special atmosphere in which you want to constantly develop, achieve your goals and conquer new heights.

We sincerely rejoice at your success, which you achieve in all spheres of life.

Wish you happiness and prosperity!

Our people abroad: MAI-SJTU graduates speaking on the benefits of intercultural communication
https://en.mai.ru/media/news/detail.php?ID=163634

Experts with Russian technical education have always been in high demand at both Russian and international enterprises. The graduates told us how to facilitate intercultural communication and what the students should pay attention to during their studies in order to cooperate with foreign corporations successfully.
MAI has been cooperating with foreign universities for a long time running double degree programs: in 2017, the targeted corporate master's program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was launched, which has no analogues in Russia.

Alexander Khvan, MAI graduate, organizes the work of MAI-SJTU. He also works on summer student practice programs at the Aviation Plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur named after Y.Gagarin and develops projects for MAI summer and winter aerospace schools for foreign students.

“More than 300 people were enrolled to MAI-SJTU, about 600 people studied at the winter and summer aerospace school programs,” recalls Alexander Khvan, the supervisor of the joint institute.

The main goal of the program is the bilateral development of intercultural communication between Russia and China.

Alexander Khvan

“Since the labor market is experiencing shortage of highly qualified engineering personnel with a good command of technical English and the understanding of the cultural peculiarities of the representatives of the partner country, the joint institute becomes especially one of the most relevant ways to educate those. MAI-SJTU is a point of growth for young professionals. And, due to the sponsorship of Russian state corporations, perhaps, it provides the most affordable program to study abroad. The project allows students to gain versatile knowledge and build a successful career in the aerospace industry,” explains the curator of the institute.

The educational program is exclusive and it is developed with the participation of the PJSC "UAC" and JSC "UEC" corporations, and the Chinese aircraft manufacturing corporation COMAC. It is aimed at forming personnel reserve for the creation of the Russian-Chinese wide-body long-range aircraft CR929, on which students begin to work from the first day of their studies. This project is the most high-tech in the portfolio of common joint projects of the two states. It is believed that the new aircraft is to compete with two giants – Airbus and Boeing – in the market of China and the Asia-Pacific region.

“I am a flight dynamics engineer at Guangdong Huitian Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd in China and I am specialized in the product lifecycle management,” says Jun Zhang, the graduate of the 2020 magister course. — I am researching the flight control strategy of a single-seat flying car concept. The knowledge gained at the joint MAI-SJTU institute helps me in my work on my projects, and disciplines such as aviation systems design, configuration management and airworthiness certification have become the basis of my professional activity. At MAI-SJTU we were not only given the theory, but also gained interest in learning new things. We united the efforts of China and Russia, shared experience with each other, and were able to improve our competitiveness via cooperation.”

The course lasts 2.5 years: the first year and the last six months the study takes place in Shanghai, the second year – at Moscow Aviation Institute. Upon completion, students receive two diplomas: SJTU and MAI. Additionally, in 2019 MAI and SJTU launched three undergraduate programs: Aircraft Engineering, Engine Engineering and Rocket Engineering. The agreement was also signed on the opening of an additional international corporate master's program for Aircraft Equipment.

“During my master's degree course, I did an internship in China and learned the basics of work in the industry. Full immersion in the work on the project of the perspective joint Russian-Chinese wide-body long-range aircraft for 250-300 passengers (CR929) from the very first days of training is the huge advantage of our joint master’s program” – says Eugene Guryev, who gained his master’s degree in 2019.

He believes that the knowledge gained helps him build fruitful communications with his Chinese colleagues.

“During the course and interaction, I managed to achieve the understanding of the behavioral patterns and peculiarities of thinking of the Chinese people. This helps a lot during negotiations and speeds up the process of agreement and decision making. Also, the course was in English and the English-speaking environment of the campus led to overcoming language barriers and gaining the skill to search for the necessary information in English. Lectures from leading companies such as HoneyWell, Hewlett-Packard, knowledge in product and project management, international standards and best practices from around the world are excellent base for further self-realization as a high-class expert,” admits the graduate.

CR929 project negotiation area at COMAC, Shanghai

Now he works in PJSC “Irkut” Corporation Regional Aircraft branch in the Design Management Research and Development Association, in System Engineering, building business processes, managing requirements and other integration processes and writing regulatory documentation.

“Among the tasks that we are now facing with my colleagues, there is the task of digital transformation of the corporation and, of course, building and linking all life cycle processes, data management, creating the unified information environment, switching to Data Driver Decision Making, which will lead to the reduction of the number of changes and transaction costs, resource management and quality of product development improvement”, says Eugene Guryev.

“I stepped out of my comfort zone” – MAI-SJTU student tells about his studies in China
https://en.mai.ru/media/news/detail.php?ID=163480

Let us congratulate you with the Lunar New Year!
Wishing you great achievement, lots of luck and all your hopes fulfilled!

MAI scientists are developing the effective sensor for hydrogen leakage detection
https://en.mai.ru/media/news/detail.php?ID=163466

In 2023 the team of Moscow Aviation Institute will complete the development of a selective sensor capable of detecting hydrogen leakage precisely. It was announced in an interview with RT by Alexander Baranov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of Moscow Aviation Institute. He said that the creation of such a sensor is not easy, still this task is very important, especially taking into consideration the growing use of H2. If compared to Russian and foreign analogues, the new sensor will become more sensitive to hydrogen leaks, will have a low operating temperature and low power consumption.
Before starting the discussion about the peculiarities of the hydrogen sensor being developed by MAI scientists, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of hydrogen as the energy source in the modern world, especially taking into consideration the global carbon neutrality course taken by the technologies that are now developing in Russia and worldwide.

Mankind is aimed at transition to environmentally friendly types of energy. And hydrogen the source of energy that looks like it has prospective. It will certainly push coal, fuel oil, diesel fuel, gasoline and natural gas aside.

H2 consumption has been growing recently and it will only continue to increase during the upcoming decades. The policy of achieving carbon neutrality, that is, the rejection of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, is the exact main reason for that.

More specifically, we can foresee the emergence of a large number of thermal power plants operating on hydrogen. The efficiency of such a station will reach 60%. Approximately the same good indicator is given by the current gas-fired thermal power plants operating on methane, but hydrogen has a number of advantages.

First of all, it has the highest thermal conductivity among all gaseous substances and, which is extremely important, it allows to regulate the operation of gas turbines easily, and, respectively, change the output power quickly. At nuclear power plants, for example, it is absolutely impossible to do this in a short period of time. Hydroelectric power stations are more flexible in terms of capacity change, but a number of places where it is allowed to build them is restricted.

Hydrogen thermal power plants are very convenient to use when the volume of consumption changes dramatically. Perhaps hydrogen power plants and the energy potential of H2 are of high importance for European countries, for they are trying to use renewable energy sources (RES) as widely as possible, but have difficulties in ensuring the energy balance in cloudy weather and during periods when there is no wind.

As the hydrogen revolution is obviously at its dawn, our country also has certain ambitions. Almost all newly built pipelines, including Nord Stream 2, are made using materials and technologies that allow H2 to be pumped. Russia could hypothetically become the major global producer and exporter of hydrogen.

Though, it is still better to mix "transit" hydrogen with other substances, for example, with methane – for safety reasons. At the outlet of the pipe to the territory of the consuming country, this mixture will be separated into two gases. And for export purposes, the easiest way would be to use the underwater pipeline, because for pumping through the land artery, you will inevitably have to create a fairly extensive infrastructure for pumping and servicing.

Broad prospects are opening up for hydrogen in the automotive technology segment. This trend has also affected our country. It is known that in the near future in Moscow it is planned to create an extensive fleet of hydrogen electric buses.

However, as far as I understand, ambitious plans for a larger use of hydrogen as the energy source are constrained by the safety factor?

That is not the only restriction. A number of issues regarding the choice of the most optimal methods of hydrogen production have not been resolved yet. There is a so-called green hydrogen, which is extracted from water via electrolysis. In this case, no CO2 emissions are generated, but this method is energy intensive and quite costly. There is blue hydrogen – it is extracted from methane, but CO2 is evolved.

As far as security is concerned – on the one hand, in any case, this issue must be taken very seriously, on the other hand, the risks of mass use of hydrogen should not be exaggerated. For example, the industry that has long used hydrogen as an element for chemical reactions has, in essence, solved safety issues.

There are certain security gaps in new sectors of industry that are specifically aimed at using H2 as an energy source. In everyday life, and at all, as I think, hydrogen will not be used soon.

Of course, when talking about the attractiveness and future expansion of hydrogen applications, it is impossible to ignore its shortcomings, which most directly affect safety.

The first one is the storage complexity. H2 has the ability to pe*****te even through hard surfaces. Its spread is restrained only by a shell made of metals, and even not all of them.

The second one is the flammability, the limit of which is much wider than that of hydrocarbons and methane. The concentration of H2 in the environment must be between 4 and 75% for an explosion to occur. For comparison: for methane, this range is much narrower – from 4 to 15%.

Actually, for this reason, it is important to conduct accurate and timely measurements of the H2 concentration. What are the problems of modern hydrogen level sensors? Why did MAI decide to create a new one?

Currently, in Russia and abroad, sensors that are focused on the determination of the concentration of various combustible gases and vapors are widely used. They have both advantages and disadvantages. The approach of the AHP team is to use a selective sensor that measures only H2 and does not sense other gases.

Creating a sensor that detects (determines) only hydrogen from a variety of mixtures of other substances is a very difficult task. But, from our point of view, such a product is necessary and in demand, since it will be much better to take into account the most important properties of hydrogen: its fluidity, explosiveness, combustion temperature.

What does such a sensor look like?

Our sensor is compact and it will fit in a housing less than one cubic centimeter. The actual size is smaller, and the "sensitive" part of the sensor is quite small – it is a spiral about 0.5 mm long and about 0.3 mm in diameter.

It is not used separately, it is one of the components of the equipment of ready-made measuring devices, in our case it is a gas analyzer. In order to easily integrate our sensor into the gas analyzer, a standard housing with a diameter of 8 mm and a height of 10 mm was chosen.

In fact, we could make the sensor even more compact, but there is no point in that yet, since it needs to be built into standard gas analyzers.

And who exactly is working on this sensor?

The group of postgraduate students, employees and graduates of MAI Radioelectronics, Telecommunications and Nanotechnologies Department of Institute No. 12 Aerospace Science-Intensive Technologies and Production is working on the project. I am the leader of the group.
Last year, our project became the winner of the competition for grants from the Russian Science Foundation in "Fundamental scientific research and exploratory scientific research by small individual scientific groups."

What are other features of the sensor that your group is working on?

Our sensor belongs to the type of thermal catalytic sensors. In addition to this class of sensors, there are electrochemical, semiconductor and optical. Due to a number of features, they cannot detect hydrogen with high efficiency.

For example, electrochemical and semiconductor sensors capture hydrogen concentrations that are “harmless” from the point of view of explosiveness and, on the contrary, often “choke” – lose their sensitivity when the H2 level approaches a truly threatening threshold.

In this respect, thermal catalytic products stand out if compared with other types of sensors. They are the most suitable for measuring hydrogen in air in the range from 0.1 to 2% and higher, which most effectively helps to prevent explosive situations.

The essence of the operation of a thermal catalytic sensor is that hydrogen pe*****tes through the sensor membrane, behind which a sensitive element heated by current is placed. This element, in turn, has a surface coated with a catalyst.

It is necessary to heat the gas in order to cause a chemical reaction and thus detect hydrogen. Heating is precisely the principle of operation of a thermal catalytic sensor. Without a catalyst, the temperature of about 900 °C is required, and with a platinum catalyst, which is now widely used – about 300-400 °C.

The problem with modern thermal catalytic sensors is that at such high temperatures it is difficult to completely eliminate the possibility of situations when, during a short circuit and other malfunctions, a reaction occurs that can provoke an explosion.

It will be much safer, if the heating temperature could be lowered significantly. Today, the most advanced sensors give results at 200°C. Our task is to further reduce the temperature of hydrogen measurement.

The strategic goal of the MAI project is to conduct selective measurements of hydrogen in air or in mixtures with other combustible gases at temperatures close to room temperature. In addition to improving safety, it will be possible to reduce energy consumption. As a result, the battery life of the sensor will increase.

There is no point in lowering the operating temperature to room temperature. A good result, from our point of view, would be a product that functions when heated to 60-70 °C. Last year we developed a catalyst that operates at just over 100°C, but now we are close to making a better sensor.

The catalysts in current gas sensors are platinum group metals, but not all of them have previously been used to monitor hydrogen. We use iridium (Ir) and rhodium (Rh) in its pure form, or mixed with platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd).

This combination of materials should improve the parameters and performance of our thermal catalytic sensor. This is a fairly low operating temperature, low power consumption, selectivity, sensitivity, reduced response time (reaction to hydrogen), long-term stability of operation.

The body of the product will be explosion-proof. If, nevertheless, there is a sharp increase in the concentration of hydrogen, a short circuit or another incident, then it will prevent detonation.

When do you plan to complete the project and what plans does the MAI team have for the production of the sensor?

The work will be continued this year, and it is to be completed in 2023. The results that we will obtain during the implementation of the project are of great importance from the point of view of the development and optimization of the parameters of thermal catalytic hydrogen sensors. They will also expand the range of their practical application to new promising areas.

If we talk directly about the plans for the sensor, then, of course, we are sure that it will find its application in finished products. Currently, we are closely cooperating with the Scientific and Technical Center for Measuring Gas-Sensing Sensors named after E.F. Karpov, which is engaged in the production and supply of sensors that detect combustible gases – primarily methane and propane-butane.

Thus, our calculation is that this enterprise will expand its field of activity by offering customers end products that can effectively detect hydrogen.

Naturally, we expect interest from other equipment manufacturers. The market of gas sensors does not stand still, it is constantly developing and growing.

MAI Winter International Aerospace School is over
https://en.mai.ru/media/news/detail.php?ID=163441

On January 21-28, Moscow Aviation Institute conducted the first Winter International Aerospace School for more than 250 foreign students from four major Chinese universities: Jiaxing University, Central South University, Beijing University of Aviation and Cosmonautics and Zhejiang University. The project turned out to be one of the largest MAI additional education projects for students.

MAI Directorate for Advanced Scientific Programs held summer educational intensives for students from foreign universities regularly during the five past years. It is traditionally one of the largest international summer events. This year the organizers decided to hold a Winter School too. The event was conducted online with daily live broadcasts and Q&A sessions, at which students could get feedback, ask questions and chat with teachers.

The main topic of the School was additive technologies in the aerospace industry. The students attended the lecture and practical course on additive technologies, 3D modeling in CAD systems, design for the given cost. The topics of student projects were functional robots created using additive technologies. At the end of the program, students defended their developments in terms of production and economics in front of an expert jury, one of its members was the project manager Alexander Khvan.

The academic component of the Winter School was provided by the laboratory of additive technologies of MAI Institute No. 9 "General Engineering Training", headed by Andrey Ripetsky, Associate Professor of Department 904, Veniamin Brykin, laboratory engineer and MAI postgraduate student, Veniamin Brykin, assistant to Veniamin and junior teacher of the school, laboratory employee Konstantin Korobov. The program created by the laboratory specialists consists of more than 10 lectures and workshops on the topic of additive technologies and their application for industrial aviation.

In addition to the academic component, the Winter School also had entertaining and ethnographic block, which was dedicated to Russian history, literature, the sights of Moscow and St. Petersburg and, most importantly, the Russian New Year. Expert of the Directorate of Advanced Scientific Programs Ekaterina Rybakova conducted a tour of festive Moscow for students and showed them to the best traditions of the Russian New Year, and Ilya Konstantinov, the member of Department 101, gave foreign guests the opportunity to get acquainted with Father Frost.

Feedback from participants of the Winter International Aerospace School:
“I really love the educational programs of Moscow Aviation Institute and I hope that in future I will be able to enroll here for one of the master's degree programs,” said Qin Jihan from Beijing University of Aviation and Cosmonautics.

“The organization of the School was at the highest level. MAI professors are very passionate about their work, workshops and lectures are interesting and understandable, it is a pleasure to watch them — you learn and relax at the same time. I hope to take part in this project again,” says Li Haohao from Zhejiang University.

Winter International Aerospace School started at MAI
https://en.mai.ru/media/news/detail.php?ID=163369

On January 22, the Winter International Aerospace School program started at MAI. The Directorate of the prospective scientific programs is the organizer of the event. It is held online.

This year the large-scale project brought together 250 students from four major Chinese universities: Jiaxing University, Central South University, Beijing Aviation and Space University, and Zhejiang University.

Profound educational program is prepared for the students: lectures, workshops, live broadcasts, homework and defense of a large project on the introduction of additive technologies in aviation design and production. Traditionally, the winter school project cooperates with the laboratory of additive technologies of the Institute No. 9 "General Engineering Training" of Moscow Aviation Institute, headed by Associate Professor of Department 904 Andrey Vladimirovich Ripetsky. The leading speakers and methodologists are the laboratory staff, the leading lecturer is Veniamin Brykin, the postgraduate student of Moscow Aviation Institute and the engineer of the Laboratory of Additive Technologies.

In addition to the academic component, the winter school has entertaining and ethnographic block, which is represented by online tours to the key places in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the overview of the Russian New Year with the Father Frost speaking to the students.

XLVIII International youth scientific conference “Gagarin Readings”
https://en.mai.ru/media/events/detail.php?ID=163222

On April 12-15, 2022, the XLVIII youth scientific conference "Gagarin Readings" will be held at Moscow Aviation Institute. It is dedicated to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the "Tupolev" design bureau foundation and will be held on the basis of MAI and its branches "Voskhod" in Baikonur and "Vzlyot" in Akhtubinsk.

The annual conference is held with the aim of involving in research work and acquiring the skills of public speaking with scientific reports. Students, graduate students and young scientists of higher educational institutions, research centers and institutes, the aerospace complex under the age of 27 (inclusive) are welcome to participate.

Scientific topics of the conference:
Aviation systems;
Aircraft, rocket engines and power plants;
Control systems, informatics and power engineering;
nformation and telecommunication technologies of aviation and rocket and space systems;
Economics and management of aerospace enterprises;
Rocket and space systems;
Robotics, Intelligent Systems and Aircraft Weapons;
Mathematical Methods in Aerospace Science and Technology;
New materials and production technologies for aviation and rocket and space technology.
As part of the conference, there also will be school section and the section for foreign students (in English).

To participate in the XLVIII International Youth Scientific Conference "Gagarin Readings", it is necessary to fill in the application for participation and send the abstracts of the reports via the website: gagarin.mai.ru till February 28, 2022, including the date.

All the materials will be checked by the RuContext system. The text must be authentic by at least 80%. Abstracts that do not meet this requirement will be sent for revision or rejected.

The organizing committee informs the contact authors about the receipt of an application for participation in the conference by e-mail specified in the application. In the absence of confirmation (due to possible technical failures), abstracts and an application must be submitted again.

The conference participant can be the contact author of only one report and the co-author of no more than two other reports.

Abstract collections will be available in electronic form on the conference website with all the data in .pdf format. The collection of abstracts will be posted in the RSCI.

For all questions regarding participation in the conference, please contact the Organizing Committee: [email protected], +7 977 540-05-57, +7 499 158-16-97.

MAI kinetic energy storage device – new emergency power supply source
https://en.mai.ru/media/news/detail.php?ID=163174

Scientists of the department 310 "Electric power, electromechanical and biotechnical systems" MAI developed superconducting kinetic energy storage device (KNE). Its efficiency is almost 100%.

The project was noted at the XLVII International Youth Scientific Conference "Gagarin Readings", as well as at the European Conference on Applied Superconductivity EuCAS-2021. The press office of Moscow Aviation Institute talked to the team of developers and found out what is special and unique about the device.

Applicability

Kinetic energy storage device is the energy storage device that converts mechanical energy from the rotating flywheel into electrical energy from the motor generator.

KNE are used as emergency power sources, auxiliary power source during peak loads on the power grid and in power supply systems based on renewable energy sources.

As Konstantin Kovalev, the project manager, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of Moscow Aviation Institute, says, the superconducting kinetic energy storage device is a promising development in the area of electromechanics:
– It is able to replace the existing emergency power supplies – diesel generators, as it surpasses them in terms of efficiency, reliability, durability and environmental friendliness, – he concluded.

Uniqueness

The uniqueness of the device is in the storage mechanism itself: young scientists used magnetic suspension, superconducting bearings, “ironless” motor-generator, and vacuum-evacuated KNE body. This design minimizes electrical and mechanical losses, as well as eliminates the friction of the rotating parts against air, which makes it possible to achieve the efficiency of 99.99%.

– This device uses high-temperature superconducting bearings, which are completely free of friction. Energy losses of any electromechanical device represent the sum of losses, namely: losses in steel - hysteresis losses, losses in copper and mechanical losses - due to friction in bearings, – explains one of the authors of the project, graduate student of the department 310 Vladimir Podguzov. – We got rid of hysteresis losses by making the stator of the motor-generator “ironless”.

There are no analogues to the MAI development on the Russian market. The young scientists are planning to carry out the full cycle of tests of this device and prove its efficiency.

It is necessary to pump the air from the KNE body and create vacuum there – then, according to the authors, it is possible to achieve the nominal flywheel speed of 8000 rpm without heating the rotating parts due to friction against the air, while in air the flywheel temperature reaches critical indicators after 5000 rotations already.