18 USAU projects reached the finals of the “Umnik” competition

On November 29, the Universitetsky technology park hosted the final of the UMNIK youth innovation project competition of the Innovation Promotion Foundation.
Participants from the H2 “Medicine and HEALTH Preservation Technologies” and H5 “Biotechnologies” areas presented their projects.
In total, the finals of the all-Russian competition consider scientific and technical projects in six areas in relevant areas of the economy. These are digital solutions, medicine, new chemical and production materials, biotechnology, resource-saving energy, new devices and intelligent production processes. This year, 80 works made it to the finals.
Among them are 18 projects of young scientists of the Ural State Agrarian University. Their topics are related to digital agriculture, new methods of diagnosing and preventing diseases in animals, innovative methods for processing products of plant and animal origin, unique technologies for growing plants and recycling waste.
“I presented a project to develop functional fermented MILK products enriched with B vitamins. This topic is relevant because every year the population experiences an increasing deficiency of vitamins, in particular vitamin B12. And since fermented milk products are products of daily consumption, their fortification is very necessary. To increase the amount of vitamin B12, we proposed the use of strains of propionic acid bacteria, which are natural producers of the vitamin. This will allow us to create a new generation product,” said Sofya Pilnikova, a 4th year student at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering of the USAU.
“In the Sverdlovsk region there are 247 agricultural organizations associated with livestock and poultry waste. Therefore, the issue of manure disposal is very relevant. My project involves the development of a new technology for recycling livestock waste to produce energy resources. It will make it possible to obtain a renewable form of energy at a low cost and disinfectable fertilizer for the soil as a by-product,” shared Alexander Bazhenov, a graduate student at the Faculty of Engineering Technologies of the Ural State Agrarian University.
The scientific novelty of the work has already been assessed in the semi-final stages; now the experts are faced with the task of choosing the most successful projects for commercial use. Heads of leading companies, investors and representatives of regional authorities will form a list of promising research projects. The Directorate of the Foundation will announce the winners early next year. The authors of the best ideas receive half a million rubles for the development of their startup and the help of mentors.
Let us remind you that the competition for innovative projects “Umnik” has been held annually in 70 regions of RUSSIA since 2007 and is aimed at supporting young people’s interest in science and the creation of small innovative enterprises. Last year, two students of the Ural State Agrarian University were among the winners of the all-Russian competition: postgraduate student of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering Daria Korolkova-Subbotkina with a project to develop an environmentally friendly scheme for feeding broiler chickens without the use of feed antibiotics (scientific supervisor - Professor E.V. Shatskikh) and 4th year student of the Faculty of Agricultural Technologies and Land Management Alina Smirnova with a project to develop practical aspects of monitoring agrophytocenoses based on satellite data from remote sensing of the earth (scientific supervisor - Associate Professor A.S. Gusev).

Text – Yulia Filimonova
Photo – Elizaveta Belyaeva
11/30/2023
Source: Press service of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Ural State Agrarian University