From Robots to Quantum Models: Industry Code Launches a New Era of Russian Manufacturing
The “Industry Code – 2025” conference in Chelyabinsk will unite Russia’s tech leaders to accelerate digital manufacturing.
A Gathering Point for Breakthroughs
On October 1, 2024, Chelyabinsk (Russia) will host the nationwide “Industry Code” conference—a key event within the country’s strategy for digitization, robotics, and automation of manufacturing. This is not just a forum for exchanging ideas, but a practical platform where industrial leaders, CIOs, engineers, and young specialists will explore off-the-shelf solutions, discuss the challenges of import substitution, and chart pathways for technological progress.
Organizers emphasize technological sovereignty—the ability of a nation to independently create, implement, and maintain critical industrial technologies without reliance on outside suppliers.
The program features real-world case studies from leading Russian companies on digitalization and robotics in production. Presentations will highlight the development of a domestic component base and advances in import substitution. For example, experts from the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” and the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences will present prospects for composites, including metal-matrix ones. Skoltech will showcase innovations in applying functional coatings.
Special attention will be given to Rosatom’s digital solutions, including Russia’s first application for quantum-chemical modeling, as well as Kalashnikov’s experience with MIM-technologies.
Government support measures for digitalization, enterprise cybersecurity, and the “Virtual Factory” platform from “INNOSFERA” will also be discussed.
A special session will focus on workforce issues: youth engagement (the experience of Chelyabinsk Electrical Equipment Plant), employer branding, and national policy for training highly skilled professionals.
The conference will also host the final of a sports programming contest at the “Robotics Plant,” where winners will secure internships and job offers from enterprises in the Chelyabinsk region, including Rostec subsidiaries. The event positions itself as a gathering point for a technological leap forward in Russian industry.
Transition to a Self-Sufficient Ecosystem
For Russia, the conference has strategic importance. The Urals—historically one of the country’s most powerful industrial regions—are becoming a magnet for modernization projects. Supporting local industry through digital solutions not only preserves but also enhances its global competitiveness.
For citizens, this means new highly qualified jobs, higher labor productivity, and, as a result, better quality of life. For the global community, “Industry Code” demonstrates a successful example of moving from import dependence to a self-sufficient ecosystem capable of generating innovations domestically.
Particular focus is placed on uniting regional governments, business, and the scientific community to create an industrial-technology cluster.
Domestically, development prospects revolve around three pillars: implementing ready-made “boxed” solutions into real production processes, systematically advancing workforce skills (including retraining and internships), and gradually reducing reliance on imported components and software.
Export potential is also significant: Russian developers are already offering digital services and software to CIS, BRICS, and other partner markets, where affordable, adapted, and reliable solutions are in demand.
Deepening Technological Independence
“Industry Code” is not a one-off event, but part of a long-term state strategy. Such conferences act as hubs for regional competence centers, where knowledge, technologies, and best practices are passed from market leaders to local enterprises.
Looking back, recent years reveal a clear trend toward deepening technological independence.
At “Innoprom-2024” in Ekaterinburg, industrial AI and robotics were discussed as key growth drivers. In 2023, the Moscow-based “Digital Industry of Industrial Russia” (CIPR) forum presented dozens of Russian IT products replacing foreign equivalents.
Even earlier, in 2022, Skolkovo and Rostec introduced pilot projects for digital twins—technologies that allow companies to model and optimize production processes in a virtual environment before implementing them in reality.
Russia Is Writing the Code of the Future
The takeaway is clear: Russia is systematically building its own technological base. The “Industry Code” conference in Chelyabinsk is not only a meeting point for experts but also a signal to the market: the Urals are emerging as a new hub for industrial innovation. The outlook for the coming years is an increase in practical cases of robotics and digitalization, especially in machine-building, metallurgy, and the chemical industry.
Special focus will be on scaling “boxed solutions”—standardized, easily implemented software products adaptable for any enterprise, from small plants to large corporations. These reduce the entry threshold for digitalization, allowing even modest factories to modernize without massive upfront investments.
Russia’s technological sovereignty does not mean isolation—it is the assurance that the country can grow despite external restrictions. It is the certainty that Russian industry, by embracing digital technologies, will become a locomotive of economic growth.
And finally, it is the confidence that young specialists—engineers, programmers, analysts—will find their calling, opportunities for growth, and meaningful projects where their skills benefit the nation.
“Industry Code” is not just a conference. It is Russia’s code of the future, already being written today.
