Cubios INC. USA (WOWCube® Gaming System), co-founder and CEO of which is NUST MISIS alumnus Max Filin, has received the CES Innovation Awards, a prestigious award for developing the best consumer IT devices and services that combine design and the most advanced technologies. Max has told us about his project, and also shared his memories of studying at the university and moving to the United States.
All children play games: on smartphones, tablets, computers, consoles. The purpose of these games is often pure entertainment because modern children easily get bored with puzzles and educational games. NUST MISIS graduate Max Filin together with his friend — inventor Ilya Osipov — have created a unique gaming system — WOWCube®, which combines all the best features from the classic educational games and modern video games.
Wowcube is an electro-mechanical twisty game system that looks like a 2×2″ version of a Rubik’s Cube. It consists of eight autonomous modules combined together in a way that enables them to be rotated by four in a layer around three mutually perpendicular axes in a way that resembles a Rubik’s Cube. Although every module of Wowcube is autonomous they are connected to each other sharing data. There are multiple smart connectors on each module which allow the data to be transferred between autonomous modules on the fly. Physically changing the geometry of the screen, the user controls virtual characters and, as a result, gets a unique gaming experience in two realities simultaneously. The cube is designed in such a way that the child, while playing, is constantly holding it at arm’s length, constantly rotating it, looking from different sides, which has a beneficial effect on the development of the child and preserves his vision.
“My brilliant friend, scientist and inventor from Nizhny Novgorod Ilya Osipov, came up with this idea together with his son. He is not only a successful entrepreneur but also a very talented programmer, who has developed the core of our operating system. I, in turn, had extensive experience in electronics production and therefore was engaged in the implementation of the ‘hardware’ part of the device, that is, production”, — Max Filin told about the history of the product creation.
The uniqueness lies not only in the design but also in the fact that the creators of WOWCube® have also created an operating system that allows you to combine similar modules together and wrote a set of software for independent games and applications developers (SDK or Software development kit) and an emulator — a program for a computer that imitates the cube so that you can test everything on a virtual one without buying a real one. It allows anyone to create games and applications for the cube.
Max started implementing his first projects in the United States almost 10 years ago, and finally moved there 3 years ago, having already achieved significant success in his career. At that time, he was a co-owner of a small ultrasonic equipment production factory, and also headed the procurement department at one of the largest Russian electronics distributors. Nevertheless, he was not satisfied with the amount of bureaucracy in Russian business, and he decided to fulfill his childhood dream — to move to the US.
“There have never been any doubts about the country. Since childhood, I knew that sooner or later I would live in the USA. The main thing is not to rush and systematically move towards your goal. If you move at least a fraction of a percent forward every day, the day will not be lived in vain”, Max said.
At first, Max and his family lived in Chicago (Illinois), then moved to Florida, and now they have moved to California — the best place for networking for people whose business is related to electronics and digital technologies.
Max has started his first business while being a student. He has studied the Automation of working mechanisms at NUST MISIS. According to him, studying at the university was really interesting, and he has decided to immediately apply the new knowledge in business — he has been engaged in assembling, selling and installing computers, mainly in B2B.
“The university gives the most important thing — the ability to learn. That is sufficient perseverance and the ability to find the information you need. It is not so important what exactly you are learning. You must get used to setting goals and achieving them on time. I am still using the skills I received at NUST MISIS in my work — methods of mathematical modeling, probability theory, statistics, basic knowledge in physics, chemistry, mathematics, geometry. It is all necessary both in real life and in business. Besides, I think that a technical university forms critical thinking — the ability to question statements and find several options for justifying and proving an answer,” Max said.
