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Regular version of the site

How HSE University-St Petersburg Spent 2022

The year is slowly coming to an end. It is high time to remember the major achievements of the campus, its staff and students and thank each other for our joint efforts and stamina. Read on to find out about the activities of the campus over the last year. And Happy New Year! May you have enough energy and inspiration for new achievements!

How HSE University-St Petersburg Spent 2022

HSE University-St Petersburg

Building New Partnerships

In 2022, HSE University-St Petersburg signed three agreements on strategic partnerships with VK, Ozon and Tinkoff. A series of new partnerships appeared during SPIEF-2022: with the Alexandrinsky Theatre and the company 1C. All the arrangements applied to the development of the learning environment. 

VK became the main partner of the 'International Bachelor's in Business and Economics' programme that was launched this year. The new educational programme includes an educational module with various internships, seminars and business projects prepared by VK. The strategic partnership with Ozon started the same way. It is implemented in 'Digital Platforms and Logistics', the first online Bachelor's programme of the campus. It also includes an educational module with internships, business cases and training classes prepared by Ozon.

The partnership with VK also touched on the IT sphere: the St Petersburg School of Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science added a Workshop on Virtual and Platform Solutions for bachelor's and master's students of the programmes in software development. The participants of this project will design software for the platform to test neural networks. 

The collaboration with Tinkoff will focus on academic and career projects. Students who undertake the internship in the company will be able to have it count as a term or pre-graduation internship. Tinkoff also launched a support programme for technical students. Such a scholarship was awarded to three students of the St Petersburg School of Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science.

The partnership with the company 1C resulted in the creation of the online master's programme in Systems Reliability Engineering, whose first intake starts in 2023. This was not the company's first partner project with the St Petersburg School of Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science: a project centre supported by 1C launched at the campus in St Petersburg a year ago.

The Alexandrinsky Theatre and HSE University-St Petersburg will start joint work on cultural and educational projects in St Petersburg. The theatre had previously collaborated closely with the Master's programme 'Arts and Culture Management' and hosted CIBA more than once.

Another new cultural and educational partnership is that with the bookstore chain Bookvoed. Now HSE University-St Petersburg students can buy books with a discount of 15% if they show their student ID cards at the cash register. Students can also undertake internships at the company's marketing department.

Cooperating with Business

HSE University-St Petersburg regularly hosted partner companies and launched joint projects with them. In April and November, the campus held its traditional Career Weeks with the participation of partner companies. Moreover, in November, HSE University-St Petersburg held Yandex Day. The highlight of this event was a lecture on logistics prepared by Yandex.Market. The campus also took part in events organised by its partners. One of them was VK Fest, where the HSE University-St Petersburg Art and Design School and student organisations held workshops.

Large companies helped the university to develop the learning environment. Gazprom Neft delivered original courses for students of the increased academic load group at the School of Economics and Management. There was even a case championship for students of the faculty organised with the Setl Group. The winning teams received prize money and an opportunity to undertake a short-term internship at the holding group. In turn, the students helped the business with research tasks: they examined young people's attitudes toward luxury brands and prepared an analytical report for Cartier based on the results of their work.

Developing Science

In 2022, there were several significant scientific conferences at HSE University-St Petersburg. Among them were the school conference on optoelectronics, photonics and nano-biostructures Saint Petersburg OPEN 2022, October readings and the two-day conference of the Centre for Youth Studies. Saint Petersburg OPEN 2022 resulted in 150 papers, which were submitted for publication to two scientific thematic journals.

This year, HSE University scientists published not only articles, but books as well. In April, Adrian Selin had his book about Novgorod court proceedings in the 16th–17th centuries published. Anton Ilyin, Dean of the School of Law, released a textbook on Russian constitutional law, and Galina Shirokova, Professor at the School of Economics and Management, published a manual on strategic entrepreneurship. Also this year, Oleg Lebedev had his book 'Education at School: Dialectics of the Past and the Future' published.

Research topics were still up-to-date and in high demand in the academic community. The Centre for Youth Studies continued to examine why young people stayed in their hometowns, using the examples of Kaliningrad, Pskov, Petrozavodsk, Syktyvkar, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The Laboratory for Management in Culture and Tourism found out which problems Arctic tourism must face.

Inspiring Research

In 2022, research projects received grant support from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) nine times. The year started with the victory of the International Laboratory of Game Theory and Decision Making and the research of the St Petersburg traffic network. The researchers will find out in which districts the load on transport is higher and how the networks can be changed. 

Physicists from HSE University-St Petersburg won a grant to study radiation sources based on nano-structures of a special kind integrated into silicon. This is not the first award for the International Laboratory of Quantum Optoelectronics: a research project devoted to micro-lasers combined with silicon was awarded a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation and a grant from the Committee on Science and Higher Education. In the summer of 2022, two more of the laboratory's research projects received grants from the RSF: one about multi-frequency laser generation and another one devoted to lasers on quantum dots.

Grant support was also provided to projects focused on the connection between working conditions and the population's health, the material world of late-Soviet society, and the adjustment of non-majority political institutions to reforms. In December, the RSF also awarded grants to small research groups for projects on the salt market of the Russian North in the 17th century and the strategic narratives of PR China.

In addition to winning grants, the researchers created scientific collaborations with other universities. In 2022, there appeared five new mirror laboratories with other universities at HSE University-St Petersburg. There, researchers will examine Arctic tourism, fatigue from online meetings, the adaptation and integration of migrant children, urban planning in the political space from the late 15th to the early 17th centuries, and semiconductors.

Supporting Students

During the year, HSE University-St Petersburg students received additional scholarships aimed at supporting their research. Three students of the Master's in Physics—Leonid Shumilov, Timofey Sulimov and Maksim Russkih—got scholarships for mathematical research from the Euler International Mathematical Institute and the Chebyshev Laboratory. Natalia Chernysheva, graduate of the Master's programme in Sociology, won the second prize in the contest of the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre for her thesis devoted to friendship between women. Nikita Gaidyshev, student of the Bachelor's programme in History, got a scholarship from the property management company Mir and will study the Russian creative world.

Students and graduates of the campus in St Petersburg took part in numerous international competitions. A team of students from the School of Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science ranked in the top 20 in the ICPC world programming contest. Graduates of the Bachelor's programme in Political Science participated in the World Debating Championship this year; they qualified for the playoffs and ranked among the top 10 teams in the category 'English as a Foreign Language'.

During the academic year, students and graduates also created unusual projects. For example, Olga Muginova, graduate of the Master's programme 'UX Analytics and Information System Design', developed a prototype chatbot to help the families of patients with dementia. A project by another graduate of HSE University-St Petersburg was included in an exhibition devoted to Aleksei Balabanov at the Sevkabel Port art space and business centre. Having studied the creative activities of a director during her master's studies, Anna Pozdniak developed a media project inspired by her courses. Political Science students created the 'Map of Responsibility' interactive online platform, which helps to figure out which urban services to contact with which requests.

Investing in Education

In 2022, three new bachelor's programmes (International Bachelor's in Business and Economics; Media Communications; and Digital Platforms and Logistics) and one master's programme (Design) saw their first intakes of students. 

Next year, HSE University-St Petersburg will open three more new master's programmes: Cross-Cultural Studies of Asia and Africa in the Context of International Relations, Systems Reliability Engineering, and International Business in the Asia-Pacific Region. The Master's in Software Development and Data Analysis will also start accepting students again. Such master's programmes highlight the development of Asian and African Studies and IT at the campus.

The main trend of the year for the campus was the 'pivot to the East'. HSE University-St Petersburg developed partnerships with universities in Uzbekistan, as demonstrated by the participation of students in the 'Uzbekistan—Land of Tolerance' summer school. The campus also opened a representative office in India, and there are plans to open five more offices in other Asian countries next year.

The campus launched new courses, tracks and programmes in 2022. Students of the Bachelor's in Applied Mathematics and Information Science were offered a programme with an increased academic load. Students of the programme will study discrete mathematics and software development in depth and prepare for student competitions. The Master's in Physics launched an experimental track in which students study lasers, semiconductors and optics. For Master's students of the School of Economics and Management, the campus created a new course in entrepreneurship developed by lecturers of HSE University-St Petersburg and the University of Oregon.

Being Part of the City

HSE University-St Petersburg participated in major city events and held its own ones. This year, the celebration of the beginning of the academic year was held in Sevkabel Port and featured lectures from researchers, dancing, and workshops. Anyone who was interested could visit it and learn about life at the university. Visitors to the typography festival in the Third Place cluster could view designers' works and listen to lectures about fonts.

The HSE University-St Petersburg Art and Design School presented its projects and created new educational opportunities. Attendees of the Summer Design School learnt about up-to-date trends in modern design. The trend of education in the art sphere continued in the form of the Children's Design School, whose courses gave school students an opportunity to study graphic design and original comics.