First-year master's students from the Department of Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry of the Geological Faculty of Moscow State University M. Lomonosov are undergoing an internship at the SCTMS of Samara Polytechnic University from August 26 to September 7.Vladimir Buchinsky, Elizaveta Manokhina, Elena Kobeleva and Sofia Tovstopyat arrived at the SCTMS together with the associate professor of the Department of Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry, PhD Olga Gurbanova. "I am responsible for organizing internships at our department and I try to make it diverse and informative for students. I have already taken this group to many enterprises and research centers. In this internship, we expect that our students will receive in an expanded form the knowledge that we currently have only in a compressed form, in particular, they will learn how to work with ToposPro", Olga Gurbanova shares.
On August 26, Professor Vladislav Blatov gave a review lecture on the areas of work of the center and the capabilities of the software developed by SCTMS, on the algorithms of ToposPro, as well as on the general principles of the geometric-topological approach and related methods and programs that are used for specific scientific tasks. The second half of the day was devoted directly to the basics of working in ToposPro.
For two weeks, guests will attend master-classes and work with tutor support from the center's employees. The internship program includes all key areas of work: from interaction with knowledge bases, screening to problems of calculation, analysis and visualization in ToposPro in such areas as metal-organic frameworks, zeolites, ionic conductivity, etc.
“We use topological analysis,” says O. Gurbanova. “In our research, this is extremely important and interesting. Moreover, our department is also engaged in synthesis, but we also have areas of theoretical prediction (atomistic design).
As geologists, we rely on natural processes in our research, and our syntheses are richer than those of chemists, who, one might say, are limited in their capabilities compared to nature. We look at what nature has done, and we, as geologists, are expected to link our new compounds to the mineralogical base. But sometimes we obtain substances that cannot be linked to minerals, and in this sense, topological analysis is simply necessary: to reduce some very complex structure to an understandable scheme, to discover the topology that was synthesized by nature itself: this is both the ultimate goal and already a good result”.
In the second week, it is planned to hold an in-depth workshop on methods for modeling ionic conductivity in solids, using not only ToposPro, but also other approaches related to the competence of the SCTMS employees. In particular, quantum mechanical calculations are envisaged on the high-performance computing cluster of the SCTMS.
"It is certainly a great honor for us to host and teach students from Russia's leading university here at the Polytechnic University," says Professor Vladislav Blatov. "This is a confirmation of our competencies and the interest of the colleagues in our developments. We have known the MSU Geography Department for a long time; we also have joint research projects. I hope that other students, including those from other MSU faculties, will come to see these 'first signs.' Moreover, such schools are of great benefit to us as well: we are already outlining possible topics for future joint research”.