Registration began 1 December 2019 for the first round of the second annual Open Olympiada for Secondary School Students “Skolkovo Junior Challenge-2020”. Key changes in this year’s competition are its geographical coverage and breadth of content areas.
Skolkovo Junior Challenge participants in the group project stage. Photo: Aleksandr Gakhov, IG Skolkovo.
The competition will be organized around three focal areas: The Modern Energy Sector, Biomedical Technology, and Industrial technology. All three focal areas will contain an information technology aspect and students will also need to possess proficient knowledge of the English language. Students interested in physics, maths, programming, design, biology, chemistry, medicine, economics and human geography in grades 7-10 across Russia are invited to compete. Participants will research the specifics of space food, design “smart” energy supply systems for population centers, plan an efficient infrastructure for innovation-production clusters, and complete many other tasks. Skolkovo Junior Challenge-2020 will include two online selection rounds, and a final round to be held in May 2020 as part of the Skolkovo Startup Village event.
Last year’s Skolkovo Junior Challenge drew participants from schools across Moscow and the larger Moscow region. A total of 215 students participated in the first rounds of the competition, and 48 talented students in teams of four made it to the final round of the competition. Finalists worked on projects in the focal areas “Energy Tech”, “Biomed” and “Space”. Energy tech students designed a closed energy supply system for a small village, while Biomed students researched the problem of resurgent drug-resistant bacteria, and Space engineers developed a planet rover with remote control and AI navigation capabilities.
One team from each of the three focal areas was awarded the top prize on stage at the 2019 Skolkovo Startup Village event. Official sponsors and parter organizations of Skolkovo Junior Challenge include the Russian Post, InSilico, Ruselprom, Qrepablik, Huawei, SPLAT and Open University Skolkovo.
Skolkovo Junior Challenge finalists on stage at the 2019 Startup Village event. Photo: Aleksandr Gakhov, IG Skolkovo.
Skolkovo Junior Challenge-2019 was the first competition of its kind, combining elements of both technical and humanities-driven fields of research and development.
This year team finalists will again receive phenomenal prizes from competition sponsors, and the top students among them (one from each of the three focal areas) will be awarded one-year scholarships to attend IG Skolkovo. In addition, all participants will have an opportunity to engage with online-schools in the three focal areas, meet with investors and attend lectures from international experts.