A high-tech laboratory has been established at the RUDN Law Institute

In the legal institute of RUDN, the formation of a new generation criminalistics laboratory has been completed. This is a space where future lawyers work not with specimens and posters, but with equipment comparable to the facilities of the country’s leading expert-criminalistics units. Head of the Department of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Criminalistics at RUDN Olga Kuznetsova spoke about how the classroom turned into a testing ground for investigations, what technologies are available to students, and what scientific discoveries are already being made here.

Test site for new technologies

A modern forensic laboratory is a space where theory combines with advanced technologies and becomes a tool for solving real crime investigation tasks. The key stage of transformation from a standard office to a high-tech complex wasvictory in the “Megagrant RUDN” competition.

“Pobeda allowed the acquisition of unique equipment and the launch of a large-scale research project. The project is being implemented at the RUDN base and relies on cooperation with the scientific and educational resource center “Innovative technologies of immunophenotyping, digital spatial profiling, and ultrastructural analysis,” headed by ProfessorDmitry Atyakshinwith the support of the Management Committee headed by the rector of RUDNBy Oleg Yastrebov. Such interdisciplinary interaction has united criminalistics, forensic medicine, and high-tech methods of analyzing materials and biological objects. For legal education, this creates a rare advantage: students and researchers gain access to equipment that is usually installed in specialized scientific and expert institutions.Olga Kuznetsova.

Today the laboratory performs several functions at once: it is an advanced research platform for scientific work, and a modern educational auditorium. Practicums and special courses are conducted here, during which students work with real forensic technology.

“Superglasses” and modeling of material evidence

The main difference of the new laboratory from standard forensic classes is the level and variety of technology. Its arsenal allows modeling the entire cycle of forensic activity — from detection of traces invisible to the naked eye to modeling physical evidence on a 5D printer.

“Our laboratory is equipped with high-tech equipment. The video spectral complex “Regula 4307” and the spectral luminescent microscope “Regula 5001 MK” are, figuratively speaking, the “super-eyes” of the laboratory. They allow the detection of microparticles, analysis of biological trace residues, determination of the age of application of certain substances. Another super-technological unit is the 5D printer Stereotech. It is used to print high-precision 3D models of traces of burglary tools, fragments of bone remains.””Thanks to this, students can study complex objects not only from photographs, but also in real volume, without risking damaging the original physical evidence,” —Olga Kuznetsova.

A special place in the educational process is occupied byVR-complex “Virtual Criminalist”. A student in virtual reality gets to the scene of an incident where they can practice inspection, trace fixation, and — which is especially important — make and analyze their mistakes without harm to a real criminal case.

“A future lawyer may conditionally make a mistake when seizing traces or describing an object, see the consequences of such a mistake, and immediately adjust the algorithm of actions. No traditional manual provides such a clear feedback loop. Moreover, a set of wearable wound simulators is used in the laboratory, which are applied to anatomical mannequins. With their help, students learn to professionally describe injuries: indicating the location, shape, nature of the wound, and suggesting the weapon that inflicted it.”This allows the development of skills in drafting accurate inspection protocols, which cannot be mastered from textbooks alone,” —Olga Kuznetsova.

From the student bench to scientific discoveries

The laboratory was also conceived as a center of attraction for student science. Students gain access to equipment for conducting their own research. The results of such work have already gone beyond the framework of classrooms: the RUDN team “Criminal Reading” took1st placein an international competition“Virtual criminalist”, who graduated from the Siberian Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

“Originally, when creating the laboratory, the task was set to give students from the first year the opportunity to get involved in research work. Using a spectral luminescent microscope, students, under the guidance of teachers, study microparticles, obtaining new data, not just reproducing known results. This becomes the basis for coursework and theses. The VR complex is used for experimental studies in the field of forensic tactics — we can model situations that cannot be checked in reality due to ethical or legal restrictions.”It is important that the laboratory operates as an open scientific platform. Students come here not only for mandatory classes but also as part of a scientific club. And this already yields significant results,” —Olga Kuznetsova.

The laboratory has become a home for the student association “Criminalistics 2.0.” In an informal setting, without strict hierarchy or seminars, students discuss complex cases of crime qualification, analyze real errors in investigative tactics, and assess the possibilities of modern expertise. The department’s teachers act here as mentors, directing the discussion into the necessary scientific channel, which often leads to the birth of new student articles and course projects.

Plans for the future

The development of the laboratory does not stop. The department team has fully mastered all the incoming equipment and is preparing for a new stage. In the near future plans — the launch of additional professional education programs for students and practicing specialists.

“We also intend to implement various joint research projects with partner organizations and agencies. The logic is simple: a student must master the technology they will encounter after graduating into a subdivision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Investigative Committee. In the future, we plan a targeted update of the material database, integration of modern expert software, and expansion of the VR direction through complex multi-variant scenarios, including mass incidents and crime staging.””All this will strengthen the position of the department as a leading scientific and educational center in the field of criminology among the country’s law universities,” —Olga Kuznetsova.