Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
At the end of May, the festival of technological presentations MIEM Tech Day was held in the atrium of the HSE building on Pokrovsky Boulevard. The event brought together the main educational, research and project tracks Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics named after A.N. Tikhonov (MIEM) HSE, carried out in close cooperation with partners – leading companies, research and financial organizations of Russia.
Engineers at the forefront of science
On this day, the festival guests were treated to an extensive program: a Technoshow from the MIEM project block, a demo Engineering and Mathematical School HSE and VK, consultations on all educational programs of the institute, presentations and stands of partner companies, quizzes, competitions, numerous interactive zones from the festival organizers, companies, student organizations.
The event was attended by students and teachers from HSE and other universities, representatives of MIEM partner companies, IT experts, and schoolchildren.
In their greetings during the short opening ceremony of MIEM Tech Day, the speakers noted the importance of the engineering direction in shaping the modern portrait of the university.
“The Higher School of Economics is a classical university, we have a wide range of areas, including engineering, which is so relevant today,” said Irina Martusevich, Vice-Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. “MIEM is the heart of engineering at HSE. The university is at the forefront of scientific thought. This is also due to MIEM.”
The general partner of the event was VK.
“For MIEM, cooperation with leading representatives of the industry and business is, first and foremost, a growth point,” emphasized Dmitry Kovalenko, Vice-Rector of HSE and Director of MIEM. “We understand that we will not be able to reach a new level in education and research without our partners, both internal, representing HSE departments and campuses, and external, including VK, the Bank of Russia, the Element Group of Companies, MTS, InfoWatch, EkoNiva, MCST and others. The list is constantly expanding. Today, there are many companies that want to move into a new history, to a new stage of development, together with MIEM.”
Showcase of achievements
A striking example of the established unique joint project-based educational model is the Engineering and Mathematical School of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and VK. The annual demo of the school took place on the main stage of the festival.
“Universities provide a solid academic base, our task is to bring in a practical component by attracting experts, interacting with students, providing cases and the opportunity to work on real projects,” says Georgy Shchelkanov, Director of University Relations at VK. “For three years now, VK, together with the National Research University Higher School of Economics, has been implementing an advanced format of project laboratories: today, students of the IMS workshops are engaged not only in educational projects, but also in applied scientific research and development. This experience allows students to develop key skills and build a career in technology.”
Three workshops, six speakers and hundreds of listeners — the participants presented the final projects prepared during the training. For the first time, the demo was held in an open format; usually such presentations are held only among workshop participants.
“We are holding a demo of the HSE IMS and VK in an expanded format. Last year it took place in the chamber atmosphere of St. Petersburg, and now we have gathered in the atrium on Pokrovka,” explained Fyodor Ivanov, director Center for the organization of work on the project “Advanced Engineering and Mathematical School” HSE University. — I am glad that this event took place. For the workshop participants, studying at IMS is an opportunity to touch real projects, to try themselves in a place where the future of the IT industry is being created. In addition, we invited IMS graduates working at VK to the demo. They shared their experience of building a career track with the audience. As a result, it was a great event, in which there was a lot of communication and exchange of experience, professional and career.”
Among the presented student developments are MLSecOps tools for analyzing vulnerabilities of machine learning models, as well as a system for monitoring the security of ML models and datasets using deduplication.
In the field of speech synthesis, a model for assessing TTS metrics was presented, replacing human expertise with synthetic data, and a zero-shot TTS project with a Russian-language dataset. Attacks on multimodal vision-language models were also investigated, and Russian-language benchmarks were developed to assess their quality.
The main space of the atrium hosted the showroom of the project Technoshow, an annual exhibition of the best project developments by MIEM students. This year, Technoshow was held for the seventh time, but for the first time in the atrium of the main building of the HSE. A total of 60 products of project activity, implemented in close cooperation with MIEM partners, were presented.
Innovations, projects, developments
An important feature of MIEM projects is their practical orientation and the use of modern technological and innovative solutions.
“The IT industry is constantly being replenished with new technologies, this is a continuous process,” noted Ilya Semichasnov, head of Project Development Management Center MIEM. – Now, for example, no one is surprised by LLM programs that talk like a real person, but literally two years ago it was wow. Even if our students demonstrate something that already exists on the market in their developments, under the hood there will still be some innovation, a student invention.”
All student projects presented at the Technoshow were implemented within the framework of the unique project model operating at MIEM, focused on close interaction with the institute’s partners and the reproduction of working models and mechanics used in the work of project teams in leading IT companies. The exhibition featured partner projects with VK, the Bank of Russia, Element Group, InfoWatch Group, EkoNiva and other companies. In many ways, it is this advantage of the project environment at MIEM that allows large technology companies not only to apply their own educational practices when implementing joint projects with MIEM, but also to consider the institute as an experimental platform for testing new models of project-educational cooperation with universities.
“Our group of companies is currently a leader in the microelectronics industry, and we recognize our significant social responsibility, the need for the entire industry to develop methods for training personnel,” said Nail Vyalshin, head of education at Element Group. “In this sense, MIEM is of great importance to us: we plan to use it as a basis for building such an innovative mechanism for implementing our educational programs, including network programs, when the institute houses the head center of expertise and competencies. We plan to further broadcast this new model in the field of higher education in microelectronics when implementing educational programs at other universities.”
The key areas of project presentations were defined: a digital university with innovative educational solutions, games and interactive applications with a focus on game design, robots and gadgets with autonomous technologies, industrial technologies for production automation, business solutions and startups based on artificial intelligence, information security solutions (from antifraud to AI protection), medical technologies for improving diagnostics, space with satellite systems, video technologies using AI, as well as clusters of projects from the joint Engineering and Mathematics School of the Higher School of Economics and VK and the MIEM Student Design Bureau with applied hardware and software projects, Center for Software Development and Digital Services with IT and IB services. As a result, MIEM’s design developments filled the entire space of the largest HSE site.
“This is the first time that MIEM has presented itself so widely at Pokrovka,” said Veronika Prokhorova, Deputy Director of MIEM HSE. “It’s great that there are so many interested parties today. Students, teachers, and staff come up to us, ask questions, and are interested. For us, Technoshow and MIEM Tech Day are the tip of the iceberg. Today, we have gathered here the very best of what we do throughout the year. We are finally bringing it to the public and saying, ‘Guys, take a look and rejoice with us. We are great.’”
Most of the developments presented at Technoshow are of an applied nature. Evgeny Kruk, scientific director of MIEM, notes the importance of applied sciences for introducing students to scientific research activities: “Our projects have a lot of applied science, and this is the right track for students focused on research work. A project is an entry into applied science, and applied science is the entry into fundamental science. And there is a gigantic field for discoveries.”
The festival partners shared their impressions of the joint projects presented at Technoshow.
“Today, milk production and agriculture in general are no longer just a plough and shovels, they are artificial intelligence, they are cutting-edge technologies that need to be implemented. In this regard, cooperation with the Higher School of Economics is a priority for us,” shared Anastasia Ornova, manager for work with the personnel reserve of the EkoNiva agricultural holding. “We have several joint projects. For example, a project on soybean phenotyping, the purpose of which is to conduct research in the field. Another project is aimed at analyzing logistics in the supply of raw milk from the agro-complex to the plant. In the near future, we are planning to hold the first joint hackathon with the National Research University Higher School of Economics.”
“The event featured student projects, including those prepared by master’s students of the joint program with the Bank of Russia, “Information Security in the Credit and Financial Sphere,” says Elena Stavitskaya, consultant of the Department of Financial Cyber Literacy and Educational Initiatives of the Department of Methodology and Standardization of Information Security and Cyber Resilience of the Information Security Department of the Bank of Russia. “Some of the work is theoretical in nature, while others were presented in the form of implemented applied models. I would like to note the seriousness, depth, and, undoubtedly, practical nature of the projects, their focus on solving socially significant problems.”
Thus, a joint project with the Information Security Department of the Bank of Russia offered everyone who wanted to deceive (almost always unsuccessfully) the protected algorithm of biometric identification by photo created at MIEM. Another project with the Bank of Russia presented a method for comparing countries by the level of fraud pressure, allowing to evaluate the success of the work of the structures interested in this.
The festival also included an informal open day at MIEM HSE, as all of MIEM’s bachelor’s, specialist’s and master’s degree programs were presented in a separate area.
In addition, the festival guests were treated not only to a scientific and educational program, but also to a variety of entertainment activities for relaxation and communication, including bingo with the opportunity to win merch from MIEM and IMS, areas for bead weaving and playing chess, as well as an area with anti-stress coloring books.
The guests were also greatly interested in the stands and activities of partner companies and MIEM student communities – the MIEM Student Scientific and Technical Society and the MIEM Student Design Bureau.
“MIEM Tech Day is not only an exhibition of the best technological products, but also a platform for exchanging experience,” emphasized Karina Lebedeva, consultant of the financial market training department of the Department for the Development of New Technologies in Education of the Bank of Russia. “In addition to student projects, the event featured presentations of the best cases of MIEM HSE partners. The stands of partners deserve special attention, where a large number of necessary handouts were presented. Thank you for the high level of organization of the event and the opportunity to literally touch student developments.”
As a result, the day was filled with an atmosphere of friendly professional communication among all participants of the event – students, professionals, and those simply interested in the development of modern technologies and IT engineering.
“What is MIEM Tech Day for me? First of all, it is people, student communities, teams, those who create the atmosphere of the event. Secondly, it is innovation, and thirdly, it is fun, because it is really fun here, it is fun to look at it, it is fun to touch it all. This is a very cool event! Finally, it is the team that organized this wonderful holiday,” concluded Ilya Semichasnov.
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