INRTU Awards Winners of the International Academic Competition “Engineers iPolytech”
The awards ceremony for the winners of the International Academic Competition “Engineers iPolytech” for foreign nationals took place at Irkutsk National Research Technical University (INRTU) on May 13. The academic competition brought together talented prospective and current students from various countries interested in pursuing higher education in Russia.
The International Academic Competition “Engineers iPolytech” was first held in 2023. Since then, it has become an integral part of INRTU's international educational activities and an effective tool for attracting promising international students to study in Russia.
This year, 38 participants competed in the contest, with 19 winners representing eight countries: Bangladesh, Nigeria, China, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, and Liberia. The competition gave them an opportunity to continue their studies in in English-taught Master's degree programs at the Baikal School of BRICS with scholarships funded by the Russian Government. Following the selection process, 15 winners received the Russian Government Scholarship, while four others were placed on the reserve list.
The project was supervised by the International Admission Office of INRTU. The Competition was held across four fields of study aligned with the profiles of the English-taught Master's degree programs at the Baikal School of BRICS: Renewable Energy; Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence; MBA: Global Management and Leadership; and Ecology and Green Technologies.
According to the organizers, this year’s competition format was expanded. In addition to subject-specific testing, participants also went through a portfolio review process. The evaluation criteria included the GPA of the previous education document, the relevance of the higher education degree to the chosen Master's program field of study, a motivation letter and a letter of recommendation, as well as the presence of scientific publications (research experience).
The ceremony was opened by INRTU Vice-Rector for International Affairs Stepan Bykov, who emphasized the significance of the participants’ achievement in his address to the audience:
“If you are here today, it means you are among the academic competition winners who now have the opportunity to continue their education in Russia through English-taught Master’s programs.
The students who took part in the very first competition have already graduated from INRTU. Over the course of their studies, they demonstrated outstanding academic performance and proved themselves to be among the top students in their programs. Their achievements deserve high recognition. I hope you will achieve equally impressive results and make the most of the opportunities now open to you”.
Among the competition winners were students from the INRTU Preparatory Department as well as graduates of the Baikal School of BRICS Bachelor’s degree programs. Alemayhu Bersabeh Binyam from Ethiopia, a graduate of the English-taught Bachelor’s degree program “Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science”, achieved the highest score.
According to her, participation in the academic competition marked an important milestone in her academic journey:
“The knowledge I gained during my studies helped me complete the testing with confidence. I would like to express my gratitude to the faculty members for their continuous support, as well as to the staff of the International Admission Office for assisting me with the scholarship application process”.
The victory was also a major achievement for Bangladeshi Master’s student Bhuiyan Sadhin, who earned the opportunity to continue his studies at INRTU on a fully funded basis.
“It was challenging to review such a large number of technical topics in a short period of time, but my passion for the field motivated me to keep working hard. I believe that persistence and a constant drive for knowledge are the keys to success.
Winning “Engineers iPolytech” and receiving the scholarship inspired me even more to continue developing in the fields of Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI. This achievement gives me strong motivation to pursue my future academic and professional goals. I am very grateful to the organizers for providing students with an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities on the international stage,”
the student said.
The International Academic Competition “Engineers iPolytech” continues to strengthen INRTU’s reputation as a university open to talented students from all around the world.
