THE FACULTY OF ELECTROMECHANICS IS 15 YEARS OLD

Yu. M. Achkasov, E. V. Kononenko

During the years of Soviet power, Soviet science and technology have achieved colossal successes, contributing to the rapid development of the national economy of our socialist Motherland.

Soviet scientists are making an enormous contribution to world science and technology. Their outstanding achievements have made it possible successfully to solve the most complex problems in the development of power engineering, electrical engineering, machine building, automation, and other branches of the country’s economy.

The staff of scientific workers of the Faculty of Electromechanics of the Tomsk Order of the Red Banner of Labor Polytechnic Institute named after S. M. Kirov, through its scientific and educational work, has constantly sought to make its modest contribution to the great cause of communist construction in our Motherland.

The Faculty of Electromechanics was established in September 1951 to train engineers in the following specialties:

1) electrical machines and apparatus;
2) electrical insulation and cable engineering;
3) electrification of industrial enterprises

and it brought together the following departments: electrical machines and apparatus (head of department, Associate Professor I. G. Kuleev); electrical insulation and cable engineering (head of department, Associate Professor N. I. Vorob’ev); electrification of industrial enterprises (head of department, Associate Professor L. I. Gandzha) and the Department of Electrical Engineering (head of department, Associate Professor G. E. Pukhov).

G. E. Pukhov was appointed the first dean of the faculty (until 1952). In subsequent periods the Faculty of Electromechanics was headed by: Associate Professor A. I. Zaitsev (1952–1954 and 1956–1957), Associate Professor I. G. Kuleev (1954–1956), Associate Professor E. V. Kononenko (1957–1959 and 1961–1964), Associate Professor F. A. Serdyuk (1959–1960), S. S. Kropanin (1960–1961), and from November 1964 to the present time—Associate Professor Yu. M. Achkasov.

The organizational consolidation of the electromechanical specialties contributed to the further development of scientific research work and to the expansion of the training of engineers of an electromechanical profile.

During this period, scientific research work developed most fruitfully in the Department of Electrical Engineering under the leadership of G. E. Pukhov, who in 1952 defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Elements of the Theory of Components of Electrical Circuits.” However, in 1953 Doctor of Technical Sciences G. E. Pukhov, together with a group of his students, transferred to work at the Taganrog Radio Engineering Institute.

The rapid growth in the number of institute students undergoing electrotechnical training led to the need, in 1953, to divide the Department of Electrical Engineering into two independent departments: Theoretical Foundations of Electromechanics (headed by Associate Professor O. B. Tolpygo) and General Electrical Engineering (headed by Associate Professor V. M. Vysotskaya, who continues to head the department to the present time). In 1956 the Department of Theoretical Foundations of Electrical Engineering was transferred to the newly organized Faculty of Electric Power Engineering. In 1954 the oldest department of the institute—the Department of Descriptive Geometry and Graphics—became part of the Faculty of Electromechanics (headed by Professor L. S. Skripov).

In connection with the need to train engineers in the specialties of automation and telemechanics; electrical measuring technology; and mathematical and calculating machines and devices, in September 1958 the Department of Automation and Telemechanics was created at the faculty (headed by Candidate of Technical Sciences I. G. Leshchenko). In April 1961 these specialties were separated into an independent Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering.

In November 1961 the specialty “electrification of industrial enterprises” was divided into two: electric drive and automation of industrial installations, and power supply of industrial enterprises and cities. The latter, together with its students, was transferred to the Faculty of Electric Power Engineering.

In August 1962, in connection with the transfer of the mining faculty to the Kuzbass Polytechnic Institute, the specialties of mining electromechanics, mining machines, and automation of production processes in the mining industry were transferred to the Faculty of Electromechanics, together with the specialized departments: Mining Mechanics (headed by Associate Professor B. M. Titov) and Mining Machines and Mine Transport (headed by Professor O. D. Alimov).

The creation of the Faculty of Electromechanics had a favorable effect on the development of the specialized departments, especially the departments of electrification of industrial enterprises and electrical machines.

From the beginning of the organization of the Faculty of Electromechanics, the main effort of the teaching staff was directed toward solving the problems of training highly qualified engineers. This problem could be solved only if qualified instructors were available. In connection with the increase in the volume of the departments’ instructional work, the teaching staff was replenished mainly from among the most capable graduates of the faculty. Therefore, simultaneously with improving the educational process, one of the most important tasks facing the faculty’s staff was the task of developing research work in every possible way at the departments and, on this basis, training teaching personnel of the highest qualification—Doctors and Candidates of Sciences.

The main scientific directions of the departments’ activity in 1951–1960 were: the study of self-oscillation processes in electromechanical systems (L. I. Gandzha, V. M. Rikkonen, S. S. Kropanin, I. S. Avraamov, M. I. Kutarev); ventilation and thermal investigations of electrical machines (G. A. Sipailov, F. A. Serdyuk, K. K. Sonchik, D. I. Sannikov); the study of operating modes of electrical machines (I. T. Kuleev, V. M. Vysotskaya, E. V. Kononenko, A. I. Skorospelkin, V. S. Novokshchenov, E. K. Strelbitskii); the study of the electrophysical properties of dielectrics (E. K. Zavadovskaya, N. I. Vorob’ev; M. N. Treskina, K. M. Kevroleva, A. M. Trubitsyn).

On the basis of the results of these studies, in the period 1951–1960, faculty staff members defended 10 Candidate dissertations:

V. M. Vysotskaya (1953), E. V. Kononenko (1954), A. M. Trubitsyn (1954), F. A. Serdyuk (1955), V. M. Rikkonen (1956), K. M. Kevrolev (1957), M. I. Kutarev (1959), I. S. Avraamov (1960), S. S. Kropanin (1960), A. I. Skorospeshkin (1960).

The most outstanding scientific results during this period were achieved by E. K. Zavadovskaya, associate professor of the Department of Electrical-Insulation and Cable Engineering, who in 1955 defended a doctoral dissertation on the topic “The Electric Strength of Ionic Dielectrics and the Energy of the Crystal Lattice.” And in 1965 a monograph by Professors A. A. Vorob’ev and E. K. Zavadovskaya, The Electric Strength of Ionic Dielectrics, was published.

Over time, especially after the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, research work at the faculty became ever more closely connected with solving specific questions of development in the electrical-engineering industry, mainly in the city of Tomsk and Western Siberia.

Thus, beginning in 1954, the Department of Electrification of Industrial Enterprises carried out contract work on introducing the automatic synchronization of asynchronous motors, developed by Associate Professor A. I. Zaitsev, at the Sibelektromotor plant and at the Tomsk Rubber Footwear Plant. This department began to carry out work most intensively on assignments from industry under the leadership of Associate Professor A. I. Zaitsev in 1956. From this period the department carried out a number of major projects on the automation of production processes and installations. These projects included the automation of calenders and vulcanization boilers with program control for the Tomsk Rubber Footwear Plant. For the Krasnoyarsk plant “Sibtyazhmash,” a multi-channel system of remote telemechanical manual and semiautomatic control of well cranes was developed, using counting-and-computing devices. Subsequently, these works were continued as applied to the creation of systems for telemechanical control of high-speed elevators for the Leningrad Television Center.

The system created for telemechanical manual and program control of a model bridge crane was demonstrated in 1962 at the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy. The scientific supervisor A. I. Zaitsev and the principal executors V. Z. Yampolsky and V. B. Terekhin were awarded exhibition medals for the development of systems for telemechanical manual and program control of cranes.

In the process of improving the control of hoisting-and-transport mechanisms, control circuits based on digital logic elements were developed, and the problem of synthesizing optimal systems of program control was solved. On this basis, by assignment of the Tomsk Timber Transshipment and Woodworking Combine, a system of automatic control of pushers on longitudinal log conveyors was developed. A large amount of work was carried out by the department’s staff on the comprehensive automation of groove-grinding machines by assignment of the 5th State Bearing Plant. For this work, the scientific supervisor A. I. Zaitsev was awarded a small gold medal of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy in 1962, and the principal executors V. A. Beinarovich and M. P. Tabiisky were awarded large silver medals.

Significant results were achieved by employees of the Department of Electrification of Industrial Enterprises also in the field of developing and studying pulse systems for the automatic regulation of direct- and alternating-current electric drives.

As a result of the performance of the works listed above, in the period 1964–1966 eight employees of the department defended candidate dissertations (A. P. Zaitsev, V. P. Obrusnik, Yu. M. Achkasov, V. A. Beinarovich, M. A. Borovikov, V. Z. Yampolsky, V. N. Mishin, V. N. Gurnitsky), and the head of the department, Associate Professor A. I. Zaitsev, in 1966 defended a doc-

doctoral dissertation on the topic: “Theoretical and Experimental Study of Pulse Control Systems for DC Electric Machines.”

Since 1956, the staff of the Department of Electrical Machines and Apparatus began to take an active part in research work on assignments from industry. The largest works during this period were carried out on studies of the thermal and ventilation processes of electric machines for the plants Kuzbasselektromotor (Kemerovo), Elektromashina (Prokopyevsk), and the Baranchinsky Electromechanical Plant (G. A. Sipailov, D. I. Sannikov, and others), and on the development and study of single-machine asynchronous brushless frequency converters (V. S. Novokshenov).

Associate Professor G. A. Sipailov of the department during this period took an active part, as chief designer of the electromagnet, in the development and construction of the country’s largest electron synchrotron, with a final accelerated-electron energy of 1.5 billion electron-volts (the Sirius installation), and also investigated the possibility of using pulse-power generators both in accelerator technology for feeding excitation windings that create control magnetic fields, and in other branches of physics and engineering where sources of large energies, measured in millions and tens of millions of joules, are required.

The results of many years of work by Associate Professor G. A. Sipailov in this field were summarized in his doctoral dissertation, “Fundamental Problems of Electromachine Generation and Commutation of Large Pulse Powers,” which was successfully defended in May 1966.

Research work at the Department of Electrical Machines received its greatest development beginning in 1961. During this period, the department’s staff became actively involved in the work “Development of Recommendations for Increasing the Reliability and Efficiency of Electric Machines” (scientific supervisors: Head of the Department, Associate Professor G. A. Sipailov, and Associate Professor of the Department E. K. Strelbitsky). As a result of this work, methods were developed for monitoring reliability and analyzing the errors of the output parameters of electric machines; theoretical-probabilistic reliability models were created for individual units (the work was carried out on assignments from the plants Elektromashina, Sibelektromotor, and the Special Design Bureau of Electrical Machine Building).

Under the direction of Associate Professor E. V. Kononenko, the Department of Electrical Machines successfully carried out the development of recommendations for creating synchronous reluctance motors with improved energy characteristics. The studies conducted showed that the power of synchronous reluctance motors can be increased by a factor of 2.5 within the same dimensions, compared with motors produced by domestic industry.

During this period, major work on assignments from industry also began to be carried out on the study of commutation in electric machines and on the creation of contactless electromachine amplifiers, under the direction of Associate Professor A. I. Skorospeshkin.

As a result of the works listed above, 12 staff members of the Department of Electrical Machines defended candidate dissertations in the period beginning in 1961 (in 1961—V. S. Novokshenov, E. K. Strelbitsky; in 1964—A. V. Kurnosov; in 1965—K. A. Khorkov, D. I. Sannikov, V. P. Lagunov, A. L. Kislitsin; in 1966—B. I. Kostylev, O. P. Muravlev, Yu. P. Pokholkov, A. V. Loos, M. N. Ulyanitsky), while Associate Professors A. I. Skorospeshkin and E. V. Kononenko, from 1965 onward, were transferred to senior research associate positions in order to complete work on their doctoral dissertations.

Since 1962, the Department of Electrical Machines has actively joined in carrying out research work on assignments from electrical-engineering enterprises of the city of Tomsk.

the Department of Electrical Insulation and Cable Engineering. The main topics of its work are the study and development of recommendations for increasing the reliability and durability of the insulation of cables and electrical machines. The work is carried out under the direction of the head of the department, Associate Professor V. S. Dmitrievskii.

The staff of the Department of Mining Machines, under the general direction of Professor O. D. Alimov (now a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR), carried out a complex of research work on the study of pneumatic impact machines (supervisor: Associate Professor V. F. Gorbunov); the creation and study of electromagnetic impact machines (supervisor: Associate Professor N. P. Ryashentsev); and the creation and study of machines for breaking frozen ground (supervisor: Associate Professor I. G. Basov).

At the Department of Mining Mechanics, under the direction of the head of the department, Associate Professor B. M. Titov, research was successfully conducted on the development and creation of highly economical and advanced ventilation installations for mine ventilation.

In 1964 Associate Professor N. P. Ryashentsev defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “The Study and Creation of Electromagnetic Impact Machines for the Construction and Mining Industries,” and in 1965 Associate Professor V. F. Gorbunov defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “The Study of Working Processes and Vibrations of Pneumatic Hammers.” At the beginning of 1966, Associate Professor B. M. Titov submitted for defense a doctoral dissertation on the topic “Technical-Economic Studies of Optimal Aerodynamic Parameters and Necessary Standard Sizes of Mine Fans for Local Ventilation.”

During the period since 1962, staff members of the Departments of Mining Machines and Mining Mechanics defended 8 candidate dissertations (in 1962: D. N. Matikov; in 1963: N. S. Kolodyazhnyi, P. A. Samoilov; in 1964: E. M. Timoshenko, V. Z. Dozmarov, L. G. Dvornikov, V. I. Baburov; in 1966: F. F. Zelinger), and Associate Professor I. G. Basov was transferred in 1965 to the position of senior research associate in order to complete his doctoral dissertation.

In all, since the establishment of the Faculty of Electromechanics, its staff members have defended 46 candidate dissertations.

The results of the scientific-research activity of the departments of the Faculty of Electromechanics have been published in hundreds of scientific articles in various journals and scholarly proceedings. The number of articles published by faculty staff members in recent years is characterized by the data presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Table 1 also shows the volume of scientific-research work carried out by the departments of the faculty in recent years on the basis of contracts commissioned by enterprises.

At present, the departments of the Faculty of Electromechanics employ 101 members of the professorial and teaching staff and 3 senior research associates (of whom 32 hold the academic degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences), 10 engineers, and 38 educational—

support staff. Forty-four postgraduate students are undergoing postgraduate training.

Along with the development of scientific research work, the faculty staff devoted primary attention to the training of highly qualified engineers. During this period, the educational work of the faculty departments was continuously improved and enhanced. All teaching laboratories of the departments of Electrical Machines and Apparatus, Electrification of Industrial Enterprises, Electrical-Insulation and Cable Engineering, and General Electrical Engineering were completely re-equipped or created anew, and manuals for laboratory classes were issued for the courses: electrical machines, electric drive, power supply of industrial enterprises, and general electrical engineering. At present the departments have all the laboratories necessary, in accordance with the curricula, for the training of students.

The instructors of the departments took an active part in improving curricula and programs and in creating textbooks and teaching-methodological aids. Among others, the following teaching aids were prepared and published: Collection of Problems in Electrical Machines (Docent V. M. Vysotskaya—1959); Design of Electrical Substations of Industrial Enterprises (Docent A. I. Zaitsev—1959); Lectures on Descriptive Geometry for Correspondence Students (Professor L. S. Skripov—1962); Collection of Problems in General Electrical Engineering (Docent V. M. Vysotskaya—1964); Methods for Testing Electrical-Insulation Materials (Docent R. M. Kessenikh—1964); A Course of Lectures on General Electrical Engineering (Docent V. M. Vysotskaya, E. G. Amelyanchik, V. I. Elgazin—1966).

Over the fifteen years of the existence of the Faculty of Electromechanics, 2,244 engineers have been trained and graduated. The results of engineer training over the last five years are presented in Table 2.

Table 2

The training of engineers in the specialties of electrical machines and electric drive was carried out under three systems of instruction: full-time with release from production work, evening, and correspondence.

More than 320 graduates of the Faculty of Electromechanics completed the institute with distinction and at present work at the forefront of Soviet science and technology. Many graduates of our faculty hold responsible positions and successfully direct large scientific and production teams.

Thus, among the graduates of the Department of Electrical Machines and Apparatus, N. I. Shkolnikov works as chief engineer of the Sibelektrotyazhmash plant; M. F. Salashin is head of the Special Design Bureau of Mathematical Machines; I. I. Postoev is chief engineer of the Special Design Bureau of Electrical Machine Building

(Tomsk); M. A. Sutormin—Candidate of Technical Sciences, deputy director for research of a branch of VNIIEM; F. P. Zverev—chief engineer of a branch of VNIIEM; B. P. Garganeev—Candidate of Technical Sciences, head of a department of a branch of VNIIEM; L. I. Konkin—chief designer of the Electromechanical Plant; V. I. Temnykh—chief engineer of the Elektromashina plant (Prokopyevsk); I. N. Zinovyev—chief designer of the Electrotechnical Plant; V. V. Zhulovyan—Candidate of Technical Sciences, docent of the Novosibirsk Electromechanical Institute; V. V. Ivashkin—Candidate of Technical Sciences, senior research associate of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, Electronics, and Automation at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute; K. K. Sonchik—Candidate of Technical Sciences, head of a department of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute; V. I. Savin—chief power engineer of the Kuzbasselektromotor plant; G. V. Del—Candidate of Technical Sciences, docent, deputy dean of the electric-power faculty of our institute.

Among the graduates of the Department of Electric Drive and Automation of Industrial Installations are: V. M. Kashin—chief engineer of the Special Design Bureau of Mathematical Machines; I. S. Avraamov—Candidate of Technical Sciences, docent, head of the Department of Electric Drive of the Siberian Metallurgical Institute; S. S. Kropanin—Candidate of Technical Sciences, docent, head of the Department of Electric Drive of the Alma-Ata Polytechnic Institute; V. A. Sevastyanov—head of the Department of Electric Drive of the Ulyanovsk Polytechnic Institute; V. P. Kochnev—chief electrician of the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Combine; P. P. Selitsky—chief electrician of the West Siberian Metallurgical Plant; M. I. Gitelman—deputy chief power engineer of GPZ-5; F. F. Achkasov—deputy director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences; V. A. Murovyatkin—head of the strip shop of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine; Yu. I. Anokhin—head of the electrical shop of GPZ-5; A. M. Malyshenko—head of the Department of Automation and Telemechanics of TPI; Yu. S. Melnikov—deputy dean of the Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering of TPI.

Among the graduates of the Department of Electrical Insulation and Cable Engineering are: G. D. Kuznetsov—chief engineer of the Kavkazkabel plant; A. V. Teltsov—chief engineer of the Belaruskabel plant; F. T. Pak—chief engineer of the Kirgizkabel plant; E. A. Dzyubo—director of the Tashkent branch of NIIKP; P. Lobas—chief engineer of the Amurkabel plant; P. F. Dvoeglazov—head of production at the Kamkabel plant; N. A. Kozlovskaya—deputy chief engineer for new technology at the Tomkabel plant; V. T. Krupin—chief engineer of the Tomsk institute Teploelektroproekt; V. K. Keib—director of the experimental plant of the Tomsk NIIKP; Yu. P. Petrov—shop head at the Kamkabel plant; A. M. Trubitsyn—Candidate of Technical Sciences, docent, head of the Department of Dielectrics and Semiconductors of the Tomsk Institute of Radioelectronics; K. M. Kevroleva—Candidate of Technical Sciences, head of a department of the Tomsk NIIKP; N. A. Bayanova—head of a department of the Leningrad branch of NIIKP.

Among the graduates of the Department of Mining Machines, Mining Mechanics, and Ore Transport are: N. K. Vymyatnin—deputy chief mechanic of the Kuzbasskarierugol combine; G. V. Vishnevsky—head of the Abashevskaya 3-4 mine in Kuzbass; V. P. Fursa—chief mechanic of the Promyshlennaya mine in Kemerovo; N. I. Parkov—chief power engineer of the Khabarovskugol combine; N. A. Smolkin—chief mechanic of the Anzherougol trust; E. I. Kutelev—chief power engineer of the Leninogorsk Polymetallic Combine; B. M. Blagikh—chief mechanic of the Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine; O. D. Semenov—chief-

chief mechanic of the Ministry of the Coal Industry of the USSR; I. I. Nevenchenko—chief engineer of the Primorskugol combine; N. E. Zarankin—director of the Sibgiproshakht Institute; S. Ya. Stazhevskii—chief designer of the Sibgiprogormash Institute; G. N. Nafikov—deputy manager of the Anzherougol trust; N. N. Esin—senior research associate of the Institute of Mining of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes; G. I. Razgildeev—Candidate of Technical Sciences, Docent, dean of the Mining and Electromechanical Faculty of the Kuzbass Polytechnic Institute.

This list could be continued. All this shows that graduates of the Electromechanical Faculty honorably justify the high title of Soviet engineer.

The faculty is constantly developing and strengthening its ties with its graduates. At the departments of electric drive and electrical machines, annual scientific and technical conferences of department graduates working on the most up-to-date problems of science and technology have become a tradition. At these conferences the graduates, as it were, report to their department, and the department’s instructors report to the graduates.

This makes it possible to maintain a constantly close and fruitful connection between the departments and production. This is also evidenced by the fact that in the last four years alone the faculty’s researchers have carried out contract work on assignments from industrial enterprises for a total amount of more than 800 thousand rubles.

In recent years, students’ scientific research has expanded considerably. Student design bureaus are working successfully at the departments of electric drive and mining machines. A number of student works have received awards at All-Union competitions of student works; some of them have been awarded medals and diplomas of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy.

Extensive work is being conducted by the faculty’s instructors and postgraduate students to disseminate scientific knowledge; courses for raising the qualifications of engineering and technical personnel of Tomsk industrial enterprises, organized by the Department of Electrical Insulation and Cable Engineering, are operating successfully.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution, the staff of the Electromechanical Faculty is full of energy and strength to implement the decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on higher education and of the XXIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.