Published on: 2026-09-02
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
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On the first day of the new academic year, the president of AVTOVAZ, Maxim Sokolov, visited Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. In June, at SPIEF-2026, the company and the university signed a long-term cooperation agreement, providing for the integration of higher education, science, and industry in the interests of domestic automotive engineering.
Maxim Sokolov began his visit to SPbPU by familiarizing himself with the students’ developments. The engineering racing team “LenSportMash” presented to the head of AVTOVAZ the Cinque e mezzo racing car, with which won third place overall at the recent “Formula Student — Russia 2026” competition, and also became the best in the static disciplines.
Team captain Kirill Anikeev said that the team was founded in 2014 by student Evgeny Zakhlebaev. This is the first Formula Student team in the Northwestern Federal District, which designs and builds racing cars according to the regulations of the international Formula Student competitions. Over 12 years, the team has built six single-seaters, as well as the solar car SOL — the first solar-powered car in Russia. The single-seaters have competed in competitions in Germany, Hungary, the USA, and Russia, regularly winning prizes. The solar car received an award for the best debut at a competition in the USA.
The story interested the head of the company, who actively develops motorsports and supports professional racing teams. Maxim Sokolov invited the guys to the competitions (for now as spectators) and to visit AVTOVAZ.
In the Polytech Tower, Maxim Sokolov met with technical enthusiasts from the student makers’ association “FabLab Polytech,” and then met with the winners of the 2025 International Championship in Robot Combat Sports — by the team “Omnivores.”
The guys showed the guest the Honey Badger robot, which won the final battle for first place. The students designed and built it in the Robotics Laboratory of the Polytech Tower. Maksim Sokolov visited the laboratory, saw the new developments, and talked with members of the “Omnivores” team.
During the visit of the AVTOVAZ president to the Tower, everything was already prepared for the start of the “Day of the First” festival. Representatives of student engineering teams and scientific groups were waiting for freshmen at themed stands. Maksim Sokolov inspected the stands of the Student Design Bureau “System Engineering”, the “Technet” ecosystem, and others. Upon learning that the Polytech students, under the guidance of young lecturers, are also solving tasks on behalf of industrial enterprises, he shared a memory of how in his youth he himself worked on a project to modernize the hydroturbines of the Volkhov Hydroelectric Power Station together with Polytech engineers.
I hope that in the near future we will collaborate in many areas with the Russian automotive company, — supported the rector of SPbPU Andrey Rudskoy.
After the Tower, the head of AVTOVAZ met at the Research and Development building of ‘Technopolis Politekh’ with Aleksey Borovkov, director of the Advanced Engineering School ‘Digital Engineering,’ and Anatoly Popovich, director of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials, and Transport.
Maxim Sokolov also visited the Scientific and Educational Center “Mechanical Engineering Technologies and Materials,” the Laboratory of Lightweight Materials and Structures, and other laboratories at IMMiT, where he familiarized himself with key developments by polytechnic specialists for various industrial sectors.
At the end of the visit, the leaders of the university and the automotive company agreed to continue developing a systematic partnership in the interests of both the education sector and the automotive industry.
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