Knowledge is powerful: a robot bird and a mind-reading device were shown by young scientists

The fifth Anniversary Congress of Young Scientists has opened at Sirius University of Science and Technology. The country's leading scientific organizations showed their best developments, including a drone that repeats the anatomy of a bird, a device that reads human intentions by the slightest muscle tension, and an AI theoretical physicist. According to the moderator of the plenary session, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, the government plans to increase spending on science to 6 trillion rubles by the end of the decade. And one of the key areas of development of domestic technologies will be nuclear energy for space exploration. The main events of the first day of the congress are described in the Izvestia report.

"Bird technologies"

Traditionally, on their way to meetings, lectures or round tables of the Congress of Young Scientists, guests first enter an extensive exhibition space with stands of scientific organizations, where their best developments over the past year are presented. There is a real stir around the pavilion of the Moscow Innovation Cluster due to the exposition of the Neiry company, which became famous for creating the biodron pigeon. A chip is implanted in the bird's brain, with which it can be controlled.

— The biodron project is invasive and similar to Elon Musk's Neuralink. We have integrated the electrodes into the necessary areas of the animal's brain and use their stimulation to trigger targeted actions. But for now, the research is at the laboratory stage. Here we present our market-leading non-invasive technologies, when we do not integrate into the brain, but read data from the surface of the head and determine the human condition from them. This can be used by doctors, companies and private users," Alexey Khalezov, head of Neiry products, told Izvestia.

The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology is also developing "bird" technologies. They have created a biomorphic drone, the design of which repeats the structure of the bird and the method of its flight. By the congress, the developers had managed to improve the structure of its wing so that it looked even more like a natural one. If the previous versions could only plan by taking off from a catapult, now the robot is able to take off on its own.

— We have increased the degree of wing mobility, making them more similar to the anatomy of a bird. Previously, they could only move up and down by 45 degrees, now they can move by 140 degrees. This increases the reliability and resource intensity of the platform, and also makes it universal for various applications," Vladimir Shchapin, an engineer at the Laboratory of Neurobiomorphic Technologies at MIPT, told Izvestia.

"Energy of Science"

The main event of the first day was the plenary session "Energy of Science: from the Potential of Knowledge to the Creation of the Future", moderated by Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. He noted that the Congress of Young Scientists has become the second largest event in Russia after the SPIEF.

— In the twentieth century, the country's technological superiority was ensured by nuclear and space projects. This year we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the nuclear industry, and after decades, a strong and sovereign scientific base continues to be the key to the country's sustainable development," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

He recalled that in addition to technological leadership, the country faces the task of increasing spending on science to more than 2% of GDP, and business should help the state in this. In absolute terms, this should amount to over 6 trillion rubles by the end of the decade. Such measures are designed to ensure real business returns from scientific projects.

— The government has instructed to develop a program of measures to build an integrated management model for science. And today we need to answer the strategic question: how to organize the activities of government and business scientists to achieve leadership," Dmitry Chernyshenko said.

Then the conversation turned to specific technologies that can help achieve these goals. According to Evgeny Kolesnikov, director of the Istok Scientific Research Center branch of the NPO Luch Research Institute (part of Rosatom), who develops nuclear power plants for space, only such power sources can provide sufficient energy for a flight to Mars.

— Only Rosatom has the necessary technologies and materials for this. Those who are engaged in space today understand that if we want to go further into outer space, create production facilities and new types of communications there, clear space debris from orbit, and colonize the Moon and Mars, then we will not be able to do without nuclear energy," the scientist said.

The movement in this direction is now possible due to the many years of experience in using such technologies, he added. And the creation of a modern energy source for this should be implemented within the next 10 years.

The participants of another key session, "Discovering the Future: gene and cellular technologies in biomedicine", discussed the active development of methods using genes for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. Experts noted that such approaches are becoming cheaper and more accessible every year, so they are likely to become widespread in the near future.

— Genetic technologies are developing rapidly, they find application in the diagnosis and treatment of monogenic hereditary diseases. And there are also ongoing discussions about whether they can be applied to chronic, socially significant multifactorial diseases such as type 2 diabetes and hereditary forms of obesity. However, in my opinion, it's still not worth looking for a magic pill or technology. It's worth addressing yourself and your lifestyle first, but this is another discussion," said Maria Vorontsova, PhD, Deputy Director of the Lomonosov Moscow State University Institute of Medicine for Science, leading researcher at the National Research Medical Center of Endocrinology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, member of the Presidium of the Russian Association for the Promotion of Science of the Russian Federation.

Muscles with thought

Skoltech at CMU demonstrated a hardware and software package for detecting user motor intentions. The device uses light to recognize the smallest muscle movements and convert them into actions on the screen, for example, moving the mouse cursor. First of all, the complex is planned to be used to control prosthetics.

— In partnership with colleagues from Motorika, we have developed several approaches that allow us to understand in which direction a person is moving his hand. We can also decode a person's intention to write something. This is very useful if a patient without a limb has to interact with a computer or other devices in some way," Gurgen Soghoyan, one of the project developers and a researcher at Skoltech's Vladimir Zelman Center for Neurobiology and Neurorehabilitation, told Izvestia.

Artificial intelligence, trained to recognize gestures, decodes the user's commands. In addition to amputees, the technology can also be used by healthy people to remotely control devices using the slightest muscle activity.

ITMO University has developed an AI assistant for physicists that will help scientists determine the physical properties of a material faster and more accurately in order to select a suitable option for projects in the field of laser technology, optics, thermo and microelectronics. Before designing any device, such as a laser, specialists first need to understand whether their chosen material is suitable for this specific task. To do this, complex theoretical calculations must be performed at the first stage. And the new chatbot will be able to do this as well as a human.

— Our development accelerates research both at the stage of preliminary calculations and during the preparation of illustrations for publications. The goal is to attract the attention of researchers in the field of materials physics. The more scientists start using the system and sharing feedback with us, the faster we will be able to improve it to meet the needs of users," said Ivan Iorsh, project manager and Chief Researcher at the New ITMO Physics and Technology Institute.

At the Congress of Young Scientists, the developers hope to establish contacts with companies and scientific groups developing AI in scientific research, the specialist added.