How to Prepare for Your Project Defense at the Final: A Prize Winner’s Experience

The qualifying stage of Future Makers: Junior Cup 2026 is over, and we now know which participants will travel to Moscow for the final in April.

How can you manage your nerves? How do you polish your project and prepare for an important presentation before a demanding jury?

We asked Sofya Shcheglova, pictured on the right, to share her experience with this year’s finalists. Sofya is a tenth-grade student at Gymnasium No. 1 in Kemerovo and attends the Kemerovo Talent Center.

As a member of Time To Work, she reached the Future Makers: Junior Cup 2025 final and took third place in the Engineering Cup.

“Our teachers at the Kemerovo Talent Center first told us about the competition,” Sofya says. “We immediately decided to take part: the Melnichenko Foundation is an impressive, serious organization, and the challenges were real and interesting problems from real companies, rather than theoretical exercises.

“Our project aimed to improve safety at mine working faces. We came up with a way to control a roadheader remotely. We developed a model and a communications system, and presented a software prototype.”

1. Explain it so anyone can understand

“We designed the presentation and planned our talk so that anyone could understand the project — both mining-industry professionals and people with only a basic knowledge of engineering,” says Sofya. “We identified the main points and messages and worked through the risks carefully.

“The central idea was engaging too, because everyone has heard something about miners’ work, especially in Kemerovo, the capital of Kuzbass and the coal-mining region.

“Of course, we were all nervous when we spoke. But it worked because we did not recite a memorized script. We explained everything simply and in our own words.”

2. Think ahead about possible questions

“Before the defense, we considered the questions we might be asked,” Sofya says. “We worked out our answers together. During the defenses, we also listened carefully to the questions other teams received and took note.

“When we were asked how secure the servers running our software would be, we explained our use of cloud servers with additional encryption. The question was quite unexpected, but it did not make us panic.”

3. Rehearse — and know when to take a break

“The preliminary defense at the final helped enormously,” she recalls. “It was a chance to rehearse with the microphones and equipment and understand the room: where the stage was and where the judges would sit. During the rehearsal we planned how to demonstrate our work and what would happen on stage, so we would not waste time running around or making unnecessary movements during the real defense.

“The final’s busy program also helped us manage our nerves. There were lively activities, good food and lots of opportunities to talk to people. That let us take our minds off the presentation for a while and reduced the overall tension.”

4. Do not panic if everything breaks

“During the preliminary defense, absolutely everything that could stop working did stop working: the projector, the microphones — everything. Even the replacement microphone failed,” Sofya laughs.

“What did we do? We simply carried on and finished within the allotted time. That was when I realized that even if something went wrong during the real defense, we would find a way through.

“Afterwards, our supervisor said: ‘You have already been through the worst. Everything will be fine now.’

“You know how people say anxious people cannot relax until something actually happens? Well, it happened to us. We realized there was nothing left to fear, and we relaxed!”

5. Make sure everyone knows the project

“I want to stress how important it is for the whole team to understand the project. Every single person. Anything can happen: your speaker might get too nervous to continue or forget something important. It helps if another team member can take over, add to their explanation or even discuss the subject in depth.”

The secret ingredient for success: get enough sleep!

“You can rehearse your talk and polish your project forever,” Sofya admits. “So the day before the defense, I told the whole team to make sure they got enough sleep.

“Believe me, it affects your mood, energy and readiness to defend your project. Sleep really, really matters. Do not forget to sleep, dear finalists!”