30.03.2022

The Vladimir Potanin Foundation announced the list of winners of the contest for the Vladimir Potanin Memorial Scholarship. In the 2021/2022 season, 750 top students from 75 Russian universities received the stipend. Among the winners are seven representatives of LETI: Andrey Toikka, a 2nd-year master's student of the Faculty of Electronics; Anna Kosterina, a 1st-year master's student of the Faculty of Information Measurement and Biotechnical Systems; Leonid Krol, a first-year master's student of the Faculty of Radio Engineering, Daria Ivanova, a second-year master's student of INPROTECH, and second-year master's students of Faculty of Information Measurement and Biotechnical Systems Inna Korneeva, Dimitrios Palogiannidis and Alina Popadina.

The contest had two stages. In the first one, participants made an application. They wrote an essay on leadership and plans for the next 3-5 years, designed their portfolio, and prepared a motivational letter. The participants had their academic, intellectual, creative, and leadership potential evaluated, as well as the awareness of the significance of the chosen area for society. All applicants had to show active research work within their field of study. After this stage, 2 thousand master's students out of 5 707 competitors passed to the next round.

"Before participating in the competition, I structured and analyzed all my projects, which helped me understand what direction I should take to grow professionally. During the classes, I was able to communicate with people from different spheres – international, scientific, cultural, and others. I am the leader of many volunteer and educational projects that the jury appreciated. Understanding that the submitted projects are significant is very motivating for further activities." – Inna Korneeva, second-year master's student of Faculty of Information Measurement and Biotechnical Systems

In the second stage, which was held remotely, the organizers offered participants various business and social cases, business games, design elements. It was designed to reveal their motivation for development, social activity, willingness to take responsibility. "I really liked the format of team interaction; it was a great experience for further participation in conferences and contests. Also, I managed to improve my leadership qualities. For example, we had a task to draw a team coat of arms, and no one knew where to start. I took it into my own hands and offered to open up Paint and just start drawing. Then someone started to offer ideas, and others added to it. In the end, we ended up with a coat of arms," says Anna Kosterina, a 1st-year master's student of the Faculty of Information Measurement and Biotechnical Systems

"The experience I gained will definitely allow me to conduct meetings at ZOOM better and solve technical issues more quickly. The remote format was not new to me. The only thing that was new and shocked me at first was the extended functionality of the online conferencing apps." – Leonid Krol, a first-year master's student of the Faculty of Radio Engineering

"I plan to invest the money I win in the competition in my future projects, for example, in the development of a joint project between LETI and Kurchatov Institute on the development of optical coatings. I think my participation in this program will attract the attention of students who will be able to join our work; it will be useful for everyone." – Andrey Toikka, a 2nd-year master's student of the Faculty of Electronics

The winners of the scholarship will receive a monthly stipend of 25,000 rubles from the Vladimir Potanin Foundation starting in February 2022 until they graduate.