Graduate students of the Faculty of Physics at NSU became winners of the Alfa-Bank scholarship program

Alfa-Chance is a scholarship program of Alfa-Bank to support talented youth. Experts annually select the best students who receive bank grants. This year, 18,000 applications were submitted for the competition. As a result of a rigorous selection process, 100 winners were determined, each of whom will receive 300,000 rubles to implement their project. Among the winners are two second-year master’s students.Faculty of Physics of NSU—Anna ShuklinaиDenis Gribanov.

The “Alpha-Chance” program has partner universities, including Novosibirsk State University. This means that when selecting for the grant, priority is given to students of these universities. From each partner university, only two winners are chosen.

—I was very happy when I saw Denis Gribanov. We are from the same faculty and course, we know each other well and together became recipients of the Alfa-Chance grant. I immediately felt proud of our group and the physical education faculty!— said Anna.

For Denis, this is the first experience participating in Alpha-Chance; earlier, 2 years ago, he submitted an application and won a grant from the President of the Russian Federation. The student admits that he learned about the Alpha-Bank scholarship a week before the deadline, decided to participate because the application submission conditions were not difficult.

—To be honest, I still don’t believe I won. When I submitted the application, I wasn’t really counting on victory and had already forgotten that I was participating. Nevertheless, I am very happy and grateful to Alfa-Bank for such an opportunity., — shared his impressions Denis Gribanov.

Anna, on the contrary, has been participating in Alpha-Chance for the third year, and only now has she managed to get into the top 100.

—Last summer, I attended the Potanin Foundation School, where I managed to communicate with recipients of the Alfa-Chance grant and ask them for advice. Later, when I had the chance to meet with guys who received Alfa-Chance in previous years, I continued to adopt their experience. They told me to add more visual elements to my portfolio, attach more of my photos from conferences, awards, any videos and interviews with my participation. Another important point is that the portfolio should be well structured, which is also evaluated.Besides, I was advised not to write in general common phrases and not to simply list achievements; if you write “I have a dream,” tell about it in a detailed, clear, and substantiated way. Thanks to the experience of other guys, a portfolio that has been supplemented with new achievements over these three years of attempts, and the “Science as a Guest” project, for the third time I managed to become a winner of Alpha-Chance.— shared her experienceAnna Shuklina.

As part of the competition, students talk about their outstanding achievements, hobbies, and scientific activities. They are evaluated by bloggers, specialists from Alfa-Bank, creative producers, and musicians. The winners receive 300 thousand rubles each to realize their dreams and goals. For example, Denis Gribanov plans to invest the funds received into scientific research.

—I am engaged in the development of metallic waveguide filters for the terahertz range of electromagnetic waves. Devices are intended for transmission and control of terahertz radiation, as well as modulation of its characteristics. Moreover, on their basis, highly sensitive sensors can be created, capable of registering minimal changes in the transmission spectrum of various substances (for example, blood). This opens up prospects for disease diagnostics. Modeling the properties of such devices requires significant computational resources.Therefore, I requested a grant for assembling a high-performance personal computer for such calculations,— Denis explained.

Anna plans to continue her charitable project “Science Visiting,” which previously won a grant from the Potanin Foundation. “Science Visiting” offers a new format of leisure and education for children undergoing long-term treatment in rehabilitation centers. A team of specially trained volunteers from natural science faculties conducts regular interactive classes and engaging experiments at the NMITs named after academician E. N. Meshalkin and in the oncohematology department of the Regional Hospital.

—More and more people are contacting me and suggesting to hold classes for children, and this is very inspiring. The project has achieved the goals we initially set before it. I myself have seen how the children’s mood improved, and how grateful the parents were for our activities. We have a team of volunteers who continue to work further. And we can continue to bring bright colors into the weekdays of children in the hospital. In these six months, the project has grown, and I understand that the process has been launched, the project will continue and gain momentum.As a project team, we plan to attract more volunteers, seek support from various grant competitions and from sponsors,— added Anna.