Science Slam was Held at Open Innovations
GenerationS graduates took part in Saturday's battle of young scientists.
Traditionally, the battle is introduced by a guest speaker. This year it was Yevgeny Kuznetsov, RVC’s Deputy General Director, the Director of the project office and a board member. Eugeny talked about the unpredictability of the outcome of scientific thought: humanity was not always aware of what results a particular invention can bring about, and today we are once again at the dawn of great discoveries: "In science, we are already beyond the borderline of our own concepts about human potential. For the last 200 or 300 years humans have been changing nature, but now we are modifying the human being and humanity. We have raided into the mind, and now we’ve got the opportunity to shape it, to create artificial intelligence, and to change human intelligence”, Yevgeny Kuznetsov explained.
Among the slammers, GenerationS was represented by Ilya Chekh, the head of W.E.A.S. Robotics, one of the projects participating in BiotechMed GenerationS-2014 track. Ilya talked about the future of prosthetics and started from the fact that implants are no longer perceived as medical devices; these days, they are seen as devices which help a person to move. The future of prosthetics is gesture recognition in real time. The next step is implantation of special electrodes in the cortex of the brain, which will read the signals and transmit them to the prosthesis.
"We believe that disability is an opportunity for a person to surpass ordinary people in terms of abilities. Therefore we make our prosthetic appliances bright and interesting, so that children perceive them as devices and do not feel uncomfortable about using them”, Ilya says. Another development which is able to give superpowers to a person is a prosthesis which can be used to control a smart home, create a route with a navigator, and do many other things.
Such developments will be used in 2016 by the participants Cybathlone, a competition for people with disabilities, where, unlike in the Olympics, there are no restrictions on the use of technology. The participants of the competition will include W.E.A.S. team (Prostheses category) and another GenerationS-2014 team, ExoAthlete (Exoskeletons category).
Ilya’s opponents at Science Slam were young scientists from various fields. Maxim Scherbakov, Candidate of Physics and Mathematics, Department of Physics, Moscow State University, spoke about the science of nanophotonics, which will make it possible to create a supercomputer based on photons, which transmit information much faster than electrons. Alexey Natekin, St. Petersburg State University graduate student, used the time given to him to present a data analysis system that will help a person to analyze the information background. Andrei Shestakov, researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, spoke about the bacteria that eat oil and help to remove oil spills.
The winner of the Science Slam at Open Innovations was Andrei Shestakov. Andrei is an expert slammer; this victory at the Battle of Scientists in Moscow is not the first for him. Therefore, we believe that with a little more practice GenerationS participants will be able to master this kind of pitches and win the hearts of any audience.
