Before embarking on his professorial career, Ivan Avgustovich spent twelve years as a plant engineer, mechanic, and builder. As such, he firmly established the teaching of design at the Mining Institute.... His favorite aphorism when critiquing student projects was: “You must design your project in such a way that, according to your project, the plant could actually build this structure". The direction of Ivan Avgustovich's thinking made him really create an encyclopedia of practical mechanics in all its fields.