News

Dmitry Bondar has served as Senior Director for Digital Transformation at HSE University since January 2021. Since then, the university has introduced and developed numerous new, state-of-the-art information systems. Dmitry Bondar is responsible for ensuring high rates of digital transformation and the good performance of HSE's IT Office. In his interview, he speaks about the integration of new information systems, project management at the IT Office, import substitution in IT, engaging with students, and plans for the current year.

In late April, the HSE University Faculty of Computer Science organised its first data science meetup in the capital of Armenia together with the Russian-Armenian University (RAU). The event featured speakers from HSE University, Yandex, and SberDevices. The meeting featured the participation of students from Yerevan universities who have recently become acquainted with data science, as well as specialists in the field.

The Council of the International Student Association (CISA) works to ensure that international students can live and study comfortably at HSE University and in Russia in general. At present, CISA consists of nine international students and its Chair. Its current activities include dealing with border closures, arranging vaccinations, and creating information channels for international students.

On May 21, HSE University’s International Laboratory for Social Integration Research, together with the GES-2 House of Culture, will organise the first International Interdisciplinary Conference ‘What Does It Mean to Be Deaf? New Challenges for the Community’. The forum dedicated to the social, cultural and linguistic foundations of the deaf community’s functioning in the country and the world is planned in offline and online formats.

Between March 27 and May 17, applications are open for the Mirror Lab Project Competition. As part of the new applications campaign, the HSE University bulletin (Okna Rosta) is publishing a series of interviews with the winners of last year's competition. In this issue, Natalia Kryzhanovskaya and Maxim Solodovnik speak about nano- and quantum technologies, as well as cooperation between HSE and Southern Federal University (SFedU).

From April 25 to 27, a scientific student conference was held at Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU). It was attended by international graduate students and postgraduate students from 57 countries, including four students from the HSE Preparatory Year programme. The HSE News Service talked to the conference organisers and participants about their impressions of the event.

Widespread internet access, low-cost mobile communications, convenient online services and banking applications make everyday life more comfortable, access to resources more equal, and society more equitable. Russians’ attitude towards the expansion of technologies such as AI was debated during an expert discussion organised by the HSE University Centre for Social Research and Technological Innovation and the St Petersburg Politics Foundation.

At the end of April, the HSE Faculty of Computer Science organised its first robotics festival. SBER was a partner of the event, which took place in the atrium of the HSE building on Pokrovsky Bulvar. Yandex and the National Association of Robotics Market Participants were the event's co-organisers. The guests attended lectures from industry experts and interacted with robots on interactive platforms.