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“AZ”: Why is the problem proposed for discussion relevant today?
Golovin A.A.:It is not difficult to answer your question. The fact is that since graduating from the university, and I also graduated from Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, during more than ten years of practical work in the still relatively young market of building automation, I have constantly had and continue to face the problem of an acute shortage of qualified personnel in the field of complex solutions to practical problems of designing and installing equipment and systems of an “intelligent building”. The fact that most ready-made engineering solutions of the “intelligent building” class are currently offered exclusively by our foreign colleagues has predetermined a number of significant gaps in domestic higher professional education, leading to an almost complete absence of specialists in demand today in the domestic labor market.
Our Association is often approached by representatives of various organizations with a request to select engineers and department heads who are capable of perceiving and actively implementing innovative solutions of a new level.
The growth dynamics of demand for specialists with specialized higher education in this field over the past few years is striking, since until now the problem of a shortage of qualified personnel in our country was solved mainly by various forms of advanced training and on-the-job training.
Volkov A.A.: Andrey Alekseevich quite correctly identified the personnel problems that today primarily affect companies focused on the widespread use of high technologies in modern construction. In this regard, I would like to focus the reader's attention on two main points that raise the most questions among our potential students wishing to receive a promising higher education.The first of them is connected with the very concept of “intelligent building”, which has entered our lives recently, seems like a distant future prospect and often requires additional explanation. In fact, everything is not so complicated and, most importantly, is already widely in demand today! Speaking in language accessible to the unprepared reader, we are talking about the justification, development, implementation and support of engineering and technical solutions in the construction of buildings, which can be attributed to one or several categories:
• automation of systems and processes;
• safety;
• information and communications;
• optimization of resource use;
• functional/technical compliance and flexibility;
• ecology;
• ergonomics and comfort.
In this context, specific engineering and technical solutions for an “intelligent building” can be “imposed” on any project, guided in each case by its specifics – special customer requirements, functional purpose, construction timeframes, operational features, location, volumes and financing procedures, etc., i.e. “assemble” the “building intelligence” from “cubes” as needed in a specific situation. That is why specialists capable of systematically solving the problem of forming technically and economically sound sets of such solutions for individual mass and individual construction projects are in demand today in any organization associated with investment and construction activities at each of its stages.
The second point is related to the need to train specialists at the ISTAS MGSU faculty — who and for what types of activities are we training, where can our graduates find work today, what are the employment prospects for those who are just entering their first year this year?
“AZ”: Maybe your colleague can answer this question?
Golovin A.A.: Let's do it together! Let me start with a simple example! The BIG-RU Association includes companies of various profiles:
manufacturers of equipment for building automation systems; system integrators; investment and construction, development and operating companies.
These are precisely the main areas of activity where an engineer with higher professional education – a graduate of ISTAS – will find a decent job today. The secret is that at present there are practically no such free specialists on the domestic labor market, and the demand for them is huge.
A building automation engineer cannot be replaced by an unskilled “guest worker” from the former Soviet republics – this must be professional, intellectual, responsible and, as a result, highly paid work, the demand for which in the Russian construction market will only grow!
Volkov A.A.:Exactly! I would like to add one more important detail. Many believe that an automation engineer is the only direction of professional activity in the field of “intelligent buildings”. In fact, this point of view is far from true! The fact is that the process of introducing innovative engineering and technical solutions into newly constructed and reconstructed facilities affects the entire life cycle of buildings and structures and, as a result, all stages of work, including pre-investment, investment, design, construction itself, installation of equipment and technological cycles, operation and disposal.
Therefore, our faculty trains engineers in three specialties in the field of information systems, technologies and automation. Within these specialties, a student can choose one or several subject specializations and the topic of the diploma project, expanding professional competence in the direction that best suits his individual abilities.
“AZ”: How is the field of “information systems and technologies” related to the subject of our conversation?
Volkov A.A.: Directly related!
The solution of any problem in modern construction begins and is constantly accompanied by the use of the widest range of information systems and technologies — these are computer-aided design systems (CAD), automation of control systems (ACS), automation of process and production control systems (APCS), database and knowledge management systems (DBMS), corporate information systems (CIS), expert analysis systems, computer modeling and much, much more. In fact, any automation and control task has a pronounced information nature and comes down to the search and application of adequate models for collecting, storing, transmitting, presenting and using information. This is a classic postulate of cybernetics from the middle of the last century!
In addition, the high demand for our specialists is also determined by the successful combination of “hot” industries on the domestic labor market. For example, in 2006, the share of demand for specialists in the “Construction, Architecture” industry among all areas of professional labor activity in the Moscow region was approximately 5%, and the demand for engineers in the field of “Information Technology, Automation, Management” was more than 15%, leaving behind almost all “non-technical” specialties, so popular fifty years ago, in this indicator. But ISTAS graduates combine professional knowledge, skills and abilities in both of the above-mentioned industries.
Monitoring the domestic labor market and adequate assessment of the state of development of scientific and technological progress in modern construction show that this is a pronounced trend of stable demand for our graduates both today and in the long term!
Golovin A.A.:This, by the way, is what defines the main differences between the graduates of the ISTAS faculty, most of whom are actually employed already in their fourth year. First of all, this is a comprehensive, systems engineering approach to solving automation problems at all levels of its development for the project as a whole, as well as mastery of modern methods and means of computer modeling of objects and automation processes. In addition, graduates of the ISTAS faculty who have chosen the appropriate subject specializations today solve a number of problems that are not directly related to engineering practice, but are extremely relevant from the point of view of the development of the direction as a whole.
“AZ”: What problems are we talking about?
Golovin A.A.:This is, first of all, a professional activity related to the successful promotion of the “intelligent building” product on the Russian market: project management, quality management (quality management systems in accordance with the international standards of the ISO series (GOST R)), corporate information systems, production management, computer modeling and design, certification and innovation in construction, and much more.
“AZ”: What specialties are recruited for the first year of ISTAS?
Volkov A.A.: Today, the faculty trains engineers in the following specialties and specific types of professional activity, which a student can focus on in their education starting from the third year:
230102 – Automated information processing and control systems (types of professional activity:
construction management;
project management;
corporate information systems of all levels;
quality management (quality management systems);
information and telecommunication technologies of all levels;
remote and distributed access, automated processing of data and knowledge;
information security;
programming and coding technologies of all levels;
expert systems; analytical assessment and verification of software and information and analytical systems;
macrodesign of functional management systems for buildings and structures;
certification and innovation in construction);
230104 – Design automation systems (types of professional activity:
engineering and computer graphics;
computer design;
design automation of all levels;
modeling of complex systems;
networks and telecommunications;
computer object-oriented and visual modeling;
software development technologies;
computing systems and application software packages);
220301 – Automation and control of technological processes and production (types of professional activity:
design (including microdesign) of automatic control systems;
automation of technological processes and production;
integrated design and control systems;
automation of engineering systems of buildings and structures of all levels;
design of computing automation tools;
design of control systems for buildings and structures of all levels;
automation of production;
environmentally-oriented systems;
energy and resource conservation).
Engineers are trained in each of the listed specialties by separate departments headed by leading scientists in Russia. Our departments and computer classes have the most modern equipment, are united in local networks and connected to the Internet. Modern and promising multimedia technologies for knowledge transfer are widely used in the educational process.
“AZ”: Is the ISTAS Faculty a new name in the modern structure of MGSU-MISI?
Volkov A.A.:The name is really new! But our faculty and its departments are the successors of the Faculty of Automated Control Systems (ACS), created at MISI in 1971. That is, the ISTAS faculty is already more than thirty-five years old! And if we talk about the Department of Automation of Engineering and Construction Technologies (AIST), which is part of it, it was formed back in 1960!
Over the years of the faculty’s existence, more than 5,500 specialists have been trained in all specialties.
“AZ”: How is scientific activity developing at the ISTAS faculty?
Volkov A.A.:Traditionally, the strongest area of activity of our faculty is scientific research and training of highly qualified scientific personnel – candidates and doctors of science. Postgraduate and doctoral studies are active, the doors of which are open, first of all, to our graduates. Today, the faculty has more than fifty postgraduate and doctoral students of full-time education only.
Today, it is at the ISTAS faculty that a new scientific direction of functional control systems for buildings and structures has been created and is developing – the basis of the applied science of design, construction and operation of “intelligent buildings”.
You have probably heard that in 2007, MGSU won the competitive selection of higher professional education institutions implementing innovative educational programs and will receive budget funding in the amount of 556.5 million rubles for the next two years. We can proudly note that the main substantive scientific project of the innovative application of MGSU — «Scale-invariant theory of functional management of buildings, structures and complexes — «Smart City»» — was declared and will be implemented by specialists of our faculty!
“AZ”: Does the faculty cooperate with foreign construction universities?
Volkov A.A.: Today our partners are construction and technical universities of Germany, France, Greece, Poland, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and many others. Our foreign colleagues often visit MGSU, and our teachers and students visit foreign universities.
Several international student educational programs of inclusive education and internships are constantly open.
Golovin A.A.: In conclusion of our conversation, I would like to add that the ISTAS faculty, together with the BIG-RU Association, has initiated a Program for the targeted training of young specialists in the field of design, construction, operation, construction management and projects of “intelligent buildings”.
The program, which is planned to begin in September of this year, will attract senior students of the ISTAS faculty with subsequent direct employment in their specialty. |
