Rector Ilshat Gafurov gathered the leadership for a discussion on December 18th.

The Rector started with introducing the newly appointed Vice-Rector for Innovation Dmitry Pashin who will supervise the planned projects. He and the relevant structural units, mostly the Institute of Engineering and the Higher School of IT and Information Systems, will start working on a unified strategy of research in robotics.

“We have talked about creating the Center for Robotics at the Institute of Engineering. We have to determine exactly when it will be launched. Secondly, all the involved units must agree on a single roadmap with projected results. We have to analyze what the leading centers in Russia are doing and then understand where our niche can be. We must not copy them. In the end, a competitive product should be presented,” said Dr. Gafurov.

A number of requirements must be met for the financing to be provided. First of all, there must be measurable parameters and personal responsibility.

Director of the Institute of Engineering, Vice-Rector Nayil Kashapov expressed his willingness to be such a center of responsibility, “We have made necessary inquiries and found out that we indeed need a unified strategy. The Higher School if ITIS is engaged in programming, we make the mechanical parts, but the direct contacts are so far only in joint master and bachelor programs in anthropomorphic robots.”

The new strategy will be submitted for discussion in a month. The abovementioned structural units will partake in equal measure within the interdisciplinary center.