ITMO Hosts National Technological Contest Finals

The National Technological Contest is an engineering competition for teams of school and university students. ITMO University has been a co-organizer of the event for three years. There, participants from all over Russia come to learn from experts and solve tasks set by tech leaders and major tech companies in various fields: from AI and smart energy to nanotechnologies and genome editing. Winners and runners-up in several of the contest’s fields receive 100 points on the Unified State Exam or an opportunity to enroll at the country’s leading universities without exams.

The contest offers four tracks for different age groups: two for school students, one for university students, and a digital portfolio competition for those applying to universities. Each track includes several fields. Currently, ITMO University hosts contests in the following four fields for older school students: Big Data and Machine Learning, Intelligent Robotics Systems, Software Engineering in Fintech, and Infochemistry. Winners and runners-up of the former two tracks get the chance to enroll at some universities, including ITMO, without entrance exams. According to the contest’s project office, in 2023 ITMO was the most popular choice among the contest’s winners and runners-up.

On March 4-9, ITMO hosted the competition in Big Data and Machine Learning, where the participants worked on a real dataset provided by VK. From the total of about 2,000 applicants, 72 students from all over the country took part in the finals. This year, the competition’s partners were VK and Yandex – the companies held tours of their St. Petersburg offices for all finalists and prepared special prizes for winners.

“ITMO is a leader in AI: we train the best specialists in this field; we also have the dedicated Research Center “Strong AI in Industry” operating within the federal project Artificial Intelligence. By participating in the contest, students learn to work in teams and within interdisciplinary projects, while also gaining experience of project work – solving real-world cases from industrial partners,” shares Alexey Itin, head of ITMO’s Admission Office.

Here’s what the participants and winners say about the contest.

Andrey Bakradze, Blagoveshchensk:

I decided to participate to test my knowledge and solve interesting cases. I took part in the tracks Flying Robotics and Big Data and Machine Learning; these fields hold a lot of promise and I’d like to develop my knowledge in them. Thanks to my participation in the contest, I not only learned more, but also boosted my logical thinking, quick problem-solving, and the ability to work with a tight deadline. I’d like to get into one of the country’s leading tech universities, such as ITMO.

Daniil Antonov, Ussuriysk:

At the contest, I had the chance to boost my skills in ML and DL. In the spring of 2023, I studied linear regression; now I’m here at the contest, solving tasks using this method. When I signed up for the contest, I didn’t even think I’d get to the finals – it was something unreachable. So I can truly say that this experience has broadened my horizons. Here, I met some cool people and got really motivated to apply to ITMO. I am also considering the National University of Science and Technology MISiS and the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

Matvey Belyaev, Vladivostok:

I signed up for the contest to find motivated, talented, and hard-working people who I could collaborate with on a startup or a company. My victory gives me the chance to enter a selection of universities without entrance exams, as well as a good portfolio. At this contest, I learned to be patient and determined, as well as to think creatively. For my future studies, I am considering four universities: Higher School of Economics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, ITMO, and Bauman Moscow State Technical University. 

On March 25-30, ITMO University will host the finals in the field Intelligent Robotics Systems. You can learn more about the contest and registration process here (in Russian).