"Faces of Science" — a guide to innovations at the RUSSIA EXPO

The "Faces of Science" exposition is now open to everyone. Until July 8, visitors to the International RUSSIA EXPO can see portraits of 24 leading Russian scientists, engineers, designers, authors of high-tech developments, technological entrepreneurs and laureates of the President of the Russian Federation's Prize in the field of science and innovation for young scientists on the VDNH alley opposite Pavilion No. 19 ATOM.

The pavilions of the exposition showcase the breakthrough developments of the project’s heroes — achievements in medicine and biotechnology, IT technology, transport, metallurgy, the space industry, mineral extraction and petrochemicals, agriculture, the nuclear industry and others. The technological and innovative exhibits are particularly popular among visitors to the RUSSIA EXPO and can still be seen in the pavilions until the end of the exposition.

The partner of the "Faces of Science" exposition, SIBUR, presents an exposition on petrochemistry in the "House of Polymers" (Pavilion No. 12). Here, you can see how modern synthetic materials that surround us in everyday life are created, learn about unexpected applications of polymers and find out how to sort waste correctly. SIBUR's research centres address a wide range of tasks, from meeting the needs of key industries to developing innovative products and technologies. For example, the polymer flame retardant — a unique development by SIBUR scientists to impart fire resistance to building materials, was included by Rospatent in the top 10 inventions of Russia in 2020. Anastasia Babina, Director of Heterogeneous Catalysis, along with her team, develops catalysts for petrochemistry, key components without which it is impossible to create polymers, and thus produce 80% of the items we use. Konstantin Vernigorov is the Director General of the applied research centres ecosystem "SIBUR PolyLab", which develops polymer solutions for construction, agriculture, transport, medicine and more. One of Konstantin's team's developments is the innovative material containing recycled plastic, Vivilen, which allows the reuse of more than 1.7 billion plastic bottles annually in production.

In the Sber Pavilion at VDNH (Pavilion No. 2), there is a large-scale exposition dedicated to the bank's history and its latest achievements in technology, digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI). The pavilion's multimedia content was developed using AI services. The space features unique AI solutions from the company, with significant contributions from Denis Dimitrov, Managing Director of Data Research at Sberbank, scientific and technical leader of the Kandinsky model development, and one of the developers of the GigaChat service. With Kandinsky, users can create photorealistic images in different styles and unlimited quantities based on text descriptions. The neural network can complete, edit and stylize finished images. Recently, Sber also released a new version of the Kandinsky Video model, which can generate full-fledged videos based on text descriptions or initial images — in other words, animate pictures. The GigaChat service can solve numerous text tasks, such as maintaining conversations, answering questions, writing poems, generating code and much more. Thus, Russian users can take advantage of free and convenient AI tools to unleash their creative potential.

In Pavilion No. 19 ATOM, developments from the divisions of the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation are presented. The magnetoacoustic bioprinter, developed under the leadership of Vladislav Parfenov, allows the growth of functional small-diameter blood vessels from the patient's biological material. These vessels are not rejected by the body, which is particularly important in pediatric transplantation. The plans include transitioning from growing individual vessels to complex branched systems, such as growing entire organs like the thyroid gland, kidneys, liver and others. This will help reduce the waiting list for organ transplants and help more than 2,000 people return to a normal life annually.

Among Rosatom's achievements highlighted in the "Faces of Science" project are the energy installations for the atomic icebreaker fleet, developed by Alexander Turusov. The advantage of the KLT-40, RITM-200, and RITM-400 reactor installations for modern atomic icebreakers and floating nuclear power plants is their power, compactness and efficiency. This allows the icebreakers to be dual-draft, improving their speed and icebreaking capability, and makes the floating power units competitive with fossil fuel energy sources.

In Pavilion C, the exposition by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation showcases an innovative development by the Shvabe holding of the Rostec State Corporation — the open resuscitation system ORS-BONO. Designers from the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant named after E.S. Yalamov, led by Alexei Chupov, developed the first Russian apparatus for nursing newborns, which combines a phototherapy module, infrared heater and respiratory block. The system helps reduce the time needed for nursing and treating infants, can be used for respiratory therapy without intubation, and treats neonatal hyperbilirubinemia with the phototherapy module. The ergonomic design allows the bed to rotate 360° without disturbing the baby. Over 50 ORS-BONO systems are already used in Russia, and the products are also exported to Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Scientific instruments and consumables from Russian manufacturers listed in the "OUR LAB" registry are presented in the Decade of Science and Technology exposition in Pavilion No. 57. Heroes of the "Faces of Science" exposition include developers of biomedical instruments Sergei Dolgushin and Averyan Pushkarev. The first domestic station for automatic DNA extraction, GeneMack Strela, is used in medical, scientific and forensic laboratories. The station extracts genetic material from samples of any complexity (whole blood, dry blood spots, saliva, hair) and is used for prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and other genetic diseases, identification in forensics and genetic research for medications discovery.

Another exhibit, the mRNA vaccine production system, allows the mixing of components to produce vaccine ingredients — lipid particles containing mRNA. The device has several advantages over foreign competitors – it is compatible with chips from various manufacturers and different form factors and can adapt to other tasks, such as the production of other types of nano- and microparticles.

The "Faces of Science" exhibition is part of the "Science Nearby" initiative of the Decade of Science and Technology, announced by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, and is conducted with grant support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. The exposition is supported by the Coordinating Council for Youth Affairs in the Scientific and Educational Spheres of the Presidential Council for Science and Education.

Throughout the year, the exposition will be held at several other venues in Moscow and other regions of the country. Information about the project's heroes is available on the Decade of Science and Technology website.