Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Peoples’Friendship University of Russia –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
There are about 1,600,000 children with confirmed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Russia. The necessary therapy is not always available to their families: due to the cost or the lack of specialized centers nearby. Teachers and students of RUDN and Altai State University have developed a special application for such children that increases attentiveness and reduces anxiety using the color photostimulation (CPS) method.
This year, the ActiMinds project team presented their application at the RUDN.VC 2.0 accelerator, becoming its finalist and receiving investor support. And then the development won the Startup Fest 2025 competition, which was organized by RSUH.
Project team:
Saniya Islamova is the project manager, analyst-programmer, first-year master’s student of the Applied Informatics program at the Faculty of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of RUDN University. Mikhail Yatsenko is the head of research work, candidate of biological sciences, psychophysiologist, associate professor of the Department of General and Applied Psychology of Altai State University. Tatyana Ustimenko is the director of the Scientific and Production Complex of the Cognitive Science Center. Ivan Brak is a specialist in scientific communication, candidate of biological sciences, neurobiologist, senior lecturer of the Department of the Faculty of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of RUDN University. Doruk Meric is a programmer, first-year master’s student of the Applied Informatics program at the Faculty of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of RUDN University.
The essence of development
The CFS method involves exposing the body to light signals of different colors – red, blue, green (at the user’s choice) – with an optimal blinking frequency.
Photostimulation helps to rebuild the functional state of the cerebral cortex into an optimal operating mode and activates Brodmann’s area 10, which in turn activates the prefrontal cortex. After all, it is the prefrontal cortex that is involved in providing such cognitive functions as planning, decision-making, awareness and establishment of logical connections between phenomena, theoretical positions, as well as in recalling memories from episodic memory.
The mobile app developed by the team works in conjunction with VR glasses. The user puts on the glasses, turns on the app, selects the color that will affect him for 2-10 minutes (red, blue or green). And then simply watches the flickering, which looks like a circle, of the selected color.
What are the advantages of development:
low cost of 2,500 rubles for a course of therapy consisting of 10 sessions (traditional methods of therapy cost from 20 to 50 thousand rubles); easy to use with a minimum of equipment (smartphone with an installed application plus VR glasses); the effect is already there from the first session; • high safety of use in the absence of epilepsy, heart disease and recent retinal detachment or recent eye surgery; there are statistics, session history, expansion of options is planned; there is communication with the project team via a chat bot and a VK channel.
A bit of history
The idea for the project originated at Altai State University back in 2001 during a study of the influence of the level of brain activation on the effectiveness of mental performance.
“University scientists have found that at a certain level of brain activation, the experiment participants demonstrated high levels of mental performance. As a result, an idea came up to “impose” this activity on the brain in order to improve its performance using the color photostimulation method. During the research, ordinary glasses with black opaque lenses were used, on the inside of which three LEDs were glued in the center – red, green and blue. The glasses, in turn, were connected by wire to a special unit with a liquid crystal screen. It allowed changing the frequency of flickering, brightness and color,” – Saniya Islamova, head of the “ActiMinds” project and a RUDN Master’s student (Applied Informatics, 1st year).
However, it took 20 years before the idea was developed and tested on a wider audience. Only since 2023 have studies been conducted again on different groups of people – children, students, athletes. At the same time, the development of technology has made it possible to use a smartphone and the first version of a mobile application created by a programmer from Barnaul instead of a block with a screen. And glasses with LEDs have been replaced by VR glasses, which allow you to influence a person’s visual field and prevent him from being distracted from the process of color photostimulation, which significantly increases the effectiveness of therapy sessions.
Proven effectiveness
“From February 1 to May 25, 2024, 37 children aged 6 to 7 years voluntarily took part in the study of the method. The experimental group included 24 children, 5 of whom had characteristic signs of attention deficit disorder (ADD) and 6 more – signs of ADHD. The control group consisted of 13 children. Sessions with the color photostimulation method were held four times a week for 10 minutes before correctional and developmental classes in the classrooms. In total, each child completed 10 sessions. In the group of children with ADHD, the speed of completing teacher’s tasks increased by 15%, the number of errors decreased by 2.5 times, and overall productivity increased by 22.5%,” said Elena Abuzova, Director of the MBU DO “DOOTS “Harmony”.
Expanding the team
Saniya Islamova joined the project in September 2024 as an administrator, and soon began to manage it. When the team was joined by programmer Meric Doruk in early 2025, it became possible to modernize the application. In two months, Meric created a new version of the service from scratch, it was deployed on PythonAnyWhere hosting. And now the team is switching to the Express.js (backend), Next.js (frontend) frameworks in JavaScript and the PostgreSQL database management system in order to be able to block content to protect against piracy and plagiarism. In addition, unnecessary settings were removed from the service, but an algorithm for creating a personal account and verifying a user using a unique token was added. Investor’s choice With the modernized application, the team took part in the RUDN.VC 2.0 accelerator. The program lasted 70 days, and during this time, Sania and her colleagues held more than 130 meetings with mentor-trackers, attended 8 open lectures from market experts and improved their project. On May 30, at the demo day, Sania defended the team’s work to investors. One of them, the founder of the company “ABV” and ambassador of the “Academy of Innovators” Ivan Shumilov, selected “ActiMinds” for further cooperation. Here is how he assessed the project.
“The development has potential. It is possible to quickly enter monetization through the “technology plus service” combination. However, we need even more measurements on people to demonstrate the result – before/after. To increase trust on the part of parents, specialists and partners, it is necessary to strengthen the scientific and expert base. Involving people with specialized education, publications, clinical and research experience in the team or expert council will become a strong support. Their conclusions will be able to support the evidence-based nature of the method. The application can also be adapted for other problems, not only ADHD, but also stress, anxiety, and adaptation difficulties. In this way, it will be possible to expand the product line,” – Ivan Shumilov, founder of the company “ABV” and ambassador of the “Academy of Innovators”.
Best Startup
After completing the accelerator, the ActiMinds team formulated a commercial proposal for cooperation with private psychologists and neuropsychologists, psychological centers, and also agreed with the RUDN University Faculty of Psychology on joint work from autumn 2025. With such results, the participants of the ActiMinds project applied for the Startup Fest 2025 competition, which was organized by RSUH.
“In the beginning, there were no particular hopes for winning, since we had to create a website for the project and conduct a marketing campaign. Probably, setting up online advertising was the most difficult, since we were doing it for the first time. After that, we recorded a video with a story about “ActiMinds”, the conducted marketing campaign and its results, and sent an application to the competition. The jury watched the video, and eventually, the student organizers from RSUH wrote to us and invited us to the award ceremony in one of the nominations. And it turned out to be a victory in the main nomination. The victory gave a positive assessment to our project and our teamwork, which does not go in vain!” – Saniya Islamova, head of the “ActiMinds” project and a RUDN University Master’s student (Applied Informatics, 1st year).
According to Saniya, the recommendations for further development of the project from the organizers and jury of the competition were very valuable. Mikhail Boldyrev, Director of the Center for Project Activities and Communication Technologies at the Russian State University for the Humanities, advised the team to create a website and social networks for the project. Post articles on the topic of ADHD on the portal, collect traffic, and initiate communication with potential users of the application and partners in social networks. Then gradually integrate your own product into the community through expert content. In addition, Mikhail Boldyrev recommended involving doctors in testing the application in order to promote the product through their reviews.
New goals
The team has taken the expert’s advice on board, so its immediate plans include creating social networks and a project website to educate and inform parents about the ADHD problem and their method. And also to organize joint work with the psychology departments of RUDN and Moscow State University on research and scientific articles in the new academic year, and to establish commercial cooperation with private neuropsychologists and psychological centers.
“We also plan to launch our own mobile application for the Android platform, which will work together with VR glasses. In addition to the main function based on the photostimulation method, the service will offer psychological tests, analysis of the user’s speech segment before and after using the DFS method, support and online consultation with a psychologist. The application is planned to be placed on all available marketplaces,” says Saniya Islamova, head of the ActiMinds project and a RUDN University Master’s student (Applied Informatics, 1st year).
In addition, the ActiMinds team wants to apply for the Student Startup competition from the Social Initiatives Fund and compete for a grant. And hopes for another victory.
Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
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