3rd International Olympiad on Electrochemical Material Science

On November 6, 2023, the 3rd International Olympiad on Electrochemical Material Science was held by the Laboratory of Electrochemical Production Technologies and the Department of Analytical, Colloid Chemistry and Technology of Rare Element of the al-Farabi Kazakh National University as part of achieving SDG 4 “Quality education” (4.3.2 Public events (lifelong education).

The Olympiad was held free for everyone (with pre-registration) in an online format (practical). Team representatives installed a camera opposite the worktable in the laboratory so that the jury could directly see the participants’ work. Participants had to provide a report on the completed tasks in printed electronic form after 3 hours of the Olympiad. The resulting reports were carefully examined and assessed by a jury committee. The jury included representatives from different countries:

1) Fyodor Malchik, PhD – al-Farabi KazNU, Kazakhstan;

2) Dr. Netanel Shpigel – Ariel University, Israel;

3) Arseny Ushakov, PhD - Saratov University, Russian Federation.

The prize fund of the Olympiad was 1000 euros, sponsored by the Laboratory of Electrochemical Production Technologies.

9 teams as representatives of 6 universities from 4 countries took part in the Olympiad:

1. Autolab 105 (al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Center of Physical-Chemical Methods of Research and Analysis, Laboratory of Technology of Electrochemical production, Almaty, Kazakhstan);
2. Short Circuit (al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Center of Physical-Chemical Methods of Research and Analysis, Laboratory of Technology of Electrochemical production, Almaty, Kazakhstan);
3. Usanovic Fan Club (al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Center of Physical-Chemical Methods of Research and Analysis, Laboratory of Technology of Electrochemical production, Almaty, Kazakhstan);
4. ElectroElite (Nazarbayev University, Center for Energy and Advanced Materials Science, Astana, Kazakhstan);
5. Galvanic guys (Saratov State University, Saratov, Russian Federation);
6. Saratov (Yuri Gagarin Saratov State Technical University, Saratov, Russian Federation);
7. Vae victis (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moskow, Russian Federation);
8. Daniel’s lab (Hebrew university, Jerusalem, Israel)
9. REVT-echem (College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China).

On November 9, 2023, an award ceremony and analysis of the Olympiad tasks were held. A lot of oral feedback was received about the quality level of the Olympiad, as well as about students’ satisfaction with the level of assignments.

The winners of the Olympiad were:

1st place - Short Circuit (500 euro);

2nd place - Daniel Sharon's lab (300 euro);

3rd place - REVT-echem (200 euro).

Congratulations to the winners!