May 5, 2018 students of the Faculty of Physics took part in the Third Conference of TSU Physics Students and prepared their presentations and posters on various theoretical and applied aspects of physics. The Conference was held within the Project Development of the Foreign Language Competence of TSU Students. First and second year students demonstrated their English proficiency, knowledge of professional field, and communicative skills.
The conference was chaired by second-year student Vladislav Ryakin, a second runner-up of the university English competition, participant of the TPU international English contest.
The jury consisting of language instructors, Dean of the Faculty Sergey Filimonov, and Deputy Dean Dmitry Bezrodnyy, assessed topicality of reports, students’ English fluency and social skills.
Akim Tretyakov was awarded The Best Paper Award.
His presentation on Optic Effects in
Space was distinguished by the jury members and students. First-year
student Ekaterina Zueva agreed that “the best presentation was the presentation
about optical effects in space created by Akim Tretyakov (because it had a lot
of beautiful photos of space and simple, understandable text)”. The winner
was awarded a certificate and dictionaries for further studying of the English
language.
Azim Buizemwith his Quantum Interaction and
Teleportation was awarded the first runner-up. Dmitry Bezrodnyy admitted that the information presented is very topical
and highlighted that second-year students have not studied this topic yet.
First-year students Anna Lapshina and
Kristina Sharybkina were awarded the
second runner-up for their presentation about Moire Effect. The girls even prepared the samples for the participants
to make the moire effect.
Second-year students LenaraValiulina and Anastasia Oseeva were awarded a special price for conducting Davisson-Germer Expriment.
Among poster presentations, The Best Poster Awards were given to Alexey Nekhoroshev who talked about J.J. Tomson and identification of the electron and Konstantin Kim who presented life and research of one of the most outstanding physicists of the 21 century Stephen Hawking. Ekaterina Matyskina and Vladislav Kuznetsov were awarded the second prize for their Hollywood Physics. Their demonstrated what physics laws are violated by filmmakers for the sake of a good scene or a heroic character.
Associate Professor Olga Nagel said that “the third student conference organised at the Faculty of Physics within the project Development of the Foreign Language Competence of TSU Students proved that the students of TSU are interested in the educational initiatives at the Faculty and responsibly approach the participation in educational conferences in English. Modeling professional communication in English in the format of a scientific conference ensures productive environment to practice English in unconventional out of the class conditions. Students get valuable experience in listening, processing and presenting professional ideas in English as well as in interaction with their supervisors and peers. During such events teachers also get inspired to further pursue new educational initiatives when they observe how students’ creative potential is being revealed in such educational settings”.
Senior Lecturer Olga Zubkova was impressed by the fluency of the speakers. She said that despite being nervous most of them spoke confidently and knew what they were talking about.
“Each year students’ performance is getting better” believes senior lecturer Aleksandra Nabiullina. “Students responsibly approach preparation for the conference. They thoroughly select a topic, search for information, create posters, make speeches and drill the pronunciation of physics terms. It must be noted that students are assessed regardless their language proficiency. Beginners and advanced students present their posters on equal terms. Beginners do their best to catch up with their more proficient colleagues.”
Being a beginner in English Yana Mikhailova confessed that she should have prepared better. Her groupmate Vyacheslav Karakin was very happy to participate in the conference. He agreed that he must work hard on his speech. “It was rather difficult to make up sentences but I managed. I realised that there is not point cramming the text. It is better to make notes and use them while speaking. Reading would look bad.” Second-year student Nadezhda Sheremet said that she liked the first-year students’ posters very much, especially those related to physics of sports and cinematography.
Guest of the conference, Alexandra Yaroshchuk, MA student, Faculty of Foreign Languages was impressed by the high level of organisation. “The conference hall was full of people and it means that the problems for discussion were relevant and topical. The great interest was aroused by the presentations of posters, where students described their studies colorfully. The work of some students provoked my interest and admiration, although physics is not my field of activity.”
The participants shared their impression:
Vladislav Ryakin (05632), the chair of the conference: Last Saturday there was a conference, which I had been assigned to chair. That was the first time I had the opportunity to look at the audience from behind the desk, so to speak. The experience was quite nerve-wracking but nevertheless rather rewarding. The whole organization was much better this year, as well as the quality of the reports. Overall I am pleased with the way everything worked out without a hitch.
Zhanna Fedorovich (05741): It was perfect, that there are a lot of interesting events in our university that are connected with the English language. The conference about physics gave us the opportunity to learn some new information about science and to practice English at the same time. It would be very useful, if the similar events were organized more often.
Artyom Duduka (05732): IT WAS SOOOOO HARD, YOU CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE!
Ekaterina Zueva (05732): I was completely delighted with today’s event. At the beginning of it I was very nervous, but when part of the poster began I even didn’t notice how it ended. I was very pleasant to present our poster and talk with other people in ENGLISH. IN ENGLISH, guys, I SPEAK ENGLISH ON THE ENGLISH CONFERENCE. My mum won’t believe me. Honestly, I think that a lot of posters were more interesting than ours. To sum up, it was cool, it was interesting, it was unforgettable and I want to repeat it. It is worth doing.
Roman Gontarev (05732): I really liked this conference. The organisation was at the highest level. Although I did not understand everything... But the questions about the posters were really interesting, even I had to think.... Other participants also had great posters. It showed that the guys really tried their best.
Anna Lapshina (05742): This event let us interact with each other and exchange the experience, which is even more important. I like that Kristina overcame her “insecurity”. Kate passed through obstacles and took part despite everything. Vlad just showed his professionalism. Sonya and Aygerim practiced and developed their skills. As for improvements, there were not enough listeners for poster reports. Also, I expected to see more representatives of the physics department...
Oibek Mamazakirov (05742): First of all, I was surprised to hear our Dean speak English. I got really interested in the employment in sphere of physics. Secondly, the conference was boring, because of reading of almost all the participants from their papers, it seemed that they were not interested in or did not understand what they did tell about. But poster presentation was so fun. I really liked how Alice from group 0572 told about the discovery of neutrons. It was interesting. Also Kate with Vlad and Aleksey Nekhoroshev (from 0572) were good at improvisation and they spoke pretty well. In general, I would rank the conference 5 out of 10.
Akim Tretyakov (05622): The Third Conference of TSU Physics Students gave a lot of experience for me in field of English language. On the conference, I saw interesting presentations and posters which describe, for instance, phenomena from quantum mechanics. These events are needed for us. They are needed for checking ourselves and our skills in the English language. I hope that this event will be organised again in future.
The conference has already become an integral part of
the project and helps to see students’ creative potential. However, to uncover
this potential language instructors and teaching staff of the Faculty must
collaborate to contribute to students’ development and grow up international
researchers.
