The winners of the Student Energy Challenge-2020 contest are announced

The Student Energy Challenge has been held since 2017 by KAZENERGY Association in partnership and under the sponsorship of Shell Kazakhstan B.V.

On October 8-9, 2020, the final of the 2020 season took place on the virtual platform of the Student Energy Challenge intellectual contest. According to the results of these two days of project defense, the winners of the contest were identified.

For the first time in the contest history, the final was held online. During two days, the teams presented their projects and watched over other contestants. After having overcome all the stages of the contest in complicated conditions caused by the COVID crisis, 14 teams reached the final, thus demonstrating their high level of organization and readiness to defend their projects.

B. Akchulakov, Director General of KAZENERGY Association, addressed the teams and jury members with acknowledgements. He noted that the contest is annually gaining popularity among students and turns into a site for demonstration of the intellectual potential of the young generation of our country.

From year to year, the organizers think over upgrades for the contest, and first, these are directions and relevant topics for the development of new ideas.

This year, projects proposed solutions to problems in ecology, improvement of oil and gas processing technological processes, increasing energy efficiency, IT-Technology, etc. The jury members were invited to expand the next year’s topics with issues of innovation development in the agro-industrial complex and medicine.

This year, the number of the contest juries was increased. K. Kabyldin, President of the Jury and Deputy Director General of Caspian Pipeline Consortium-K JSC, headed the contest jury for the fourth time already, he wished all the teams to keep working on their ideas and return to the contest with their new developments in the coming year.

K. Keldzhanov, Vice-Chairman of Shell Kazakhstan Concern, and Bertha Hazelaar, Chief Financial Officer of Shell Kazakhstan B.V., has participated in judging teams since the very first days of the contest and they gave a favorable feedback to the team projects and underscored their relevance this year.

Each year, the Talent Contest receives support from Science Foundation JSC. Deputy Chairman of the Foundation B. Sarkeyev emphasized the significant scientific potential in the works presented by students and recommended them to further work in the domain of science and take part in all similar venues.

The regular partner of the contest, a member of the Samruk-Energy JSC Association represented by B. Issenov, Director of the “Generation and Fuel” Department, wished the guys success in the subsequent development of their ideas.

M. Tarenov, an old-stager of the petroleum industry, took part in the contest as a jury member for the first time. He, as one of the founders of the present day domestic petroleum industry, gave a send-off speech to the future specialists and wished further prosperity to the contest.
M. Sikhayev, Managing Director of the Corporate Fund “International Technopark of IT startups “Astana Hub” noted the effectiveness of the projects and invited five teams to participate in the business incubator programs of “Astana Hub”. These are “FARMer” from the Kazakh-British Technical University, “EMG team” from the West Kazakhstan Agricultural and Technical University named after Zhangir Khan, “Kókjiek” from the Satbayev University, “Refillme” and “Naizagai” from the Nazarbayev University.

The following teams were announced the winners of the Student Energy Challenge – 2020:
1st place: “Naizagai” team of Nazarbayev University
2nd place: “Refillme” team of the Nazarbayev University
3rd place: “AirFlux” team of the Pavlodar State University named after S. Toraigyrov.

The prize pool of the Contest is as follows:
1st place - $10,000; 2nd place - $5,000; and 3rd place - $3,000.

We would like to thank all the contestants and congratulate the winners of this year!
Detailed information about the Contest is available at https://www.kazenergy.com/ru/operation/educational-program/156/1099/