Participants in VyatGU's accelerator program made a breakthrough in industrial tourism.

      What students and experts have been working on all this time is not just an academic exercise but a real chance to turn Kirov’s factories into new attractions for tourists, schoolchildren and even city residents.

      The startup projects of the acceleration program participants are not dull lectures or mere factory tours. It’s about showing our city in a new way, because Kirov’s industry is not only history but also the present and the future. Instead of a standard walk through a shop floor — an interactive quest where you “enter” the production process, learn how railroad cranes are made, operate virtual machines or even “survive” in a factory with the help of a chat bot. Sounds like a game? But these are real projects that VyatSU students are working on. All of this is meant to make industrial tourism not only informative but also engaging for schoolchildren, tourists and even local residents.

      Participants of the program — students of the Institute of Economics and Management of VyatSU — visited the “Kirov Machine-Building Plant 1 May” on November 13. The young people presented their ideas: from neural networks and VR tours to a map of industrial routes across the Kirov region and gamified quests.

      All the projects presented are different but equally engaging: “PromTourProfi,” “Beacon to the Future,” “Industrial Chat Bot,” “Pulse of Industry,” “Neural Networks in Industrial Tourism,” “Regional Industry Route Map,” “Gamification in Industrial Tourism,” “TourSystem 4.0,” “ProfiQuest,” the informational portal-navigator “Zavodych,” a project to implement VR technologies in excursion activities and even a game-chat bot called “Surviving at the Factory.” Each team proposed its own original vision for the development of industrial tourism: from well-thought-out digital solutions to thrilling interactive formats. For example, the “Zavodych” portal will help tourists and regional residents easily navigate the industrial attractions, the “Industrial Chat Bot” will tell the history and technology of enterprises in a light, understandable dialogue, and “ProfiQuest” will allow anyone to become an engineer, a technologist or even a real factory specialist for a while. Together, these projects are shaping a new face of industrial tourism — modern, technological and truly alive.

      All ideas were discussed with the industrial expert from JSC “Kirov Machine-Building Plant 1 May” — Svetlana Vyacheslavovna Kislicina — an engineer for inventions and patents. She praised the students’ creativity but reminded them that:

      “You can’t show everything at the factory. There are trade secrets, safety issues, production secrets. Therefore the projects need to be adapted — made both interesting and safe for the enterprise.”

      This is the main challenge currently facing the young developers.

      Industrial tourism for Kirov is a chance to show that our city is not only about Dymkovo toys and Kikimora Hill, but also about a powerful, modern, living industry. It is an opportunity to attract tourists, create new jobs, and inspire schoolchildren toward the professions of the future. And most importantly — to help city residents look at what surrounds them every day in a new way: at the factories, the shop floors, and the people who work there.

      Youth, the university and industry are together creating not just projects but a new culture of relating to production. Very soon any city resident will be able to go on an “industrial quest” around Kirov, where they will learn how the machinery that works across the country is born. To get acquainted with the technologies that are being created here and now by our youth with the support of our enterprises. And in this lies the real future of Kirov.