IT

Speech Technologies and Machine Vision contest

Participants: final-year Bachelor’s students or graduates of any level. Relevant experience in natural language processing, automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech, speech rule engine, or LLMs will be an advantage. 

Procedure: participants must submit a detailed portfolio, complete with a letter of motivation and a list of personal achievements, via their personal page on ITMO’s admissions website. In the portfolio, you can include scientific publications and IPs; conferences, expos, and competitions; R&D projects, grants, scholarships, and awards; certificates, letters of recommendation, advanced training diplomas, as well as university diplomas (with transcript), or other achievements.

Benefits: winners will be able to enroll in the Speech Technologies and Machine Learning Master’s program without exams.

Deadlines: applications are accepted between March 1 and August 5. The winners will be announced by August 11.

AI Technologies contest

Participants: prospective Master’s students with experience in AI (within team or personal projects).

Procedure: participants present their projects involving AI technologies; the projects can be implemented in any field, such as big data analysis, algorithm/LLM development and their quality control, or industrial LLM applications. Application forms, resumes, and project presentations have to be submitted via ITMO’s admissions website.

Benefits: winners of the contest will have the chance to enroll in any Master’s program by Artificial Intelligence Technologies Faculty: Big Data and Machine Learning, Design and Development of AI Systems, and Artificial Intelligence and Behavioral Economics.

Deadlines: the competition will be held twice over the admissions period. Application for the first round may be submitted between March 3 and April 11; finalists will be selected on April 12-20. On April 21-25, they will present their projects online to an expert board.

Applications will open again on July 1. Finalists will be selected on August 1-10; they will present their projects online on August 11-14.

Machine Vision 2025 hackathon

Participants: third- and fourth-year Bachelor’s students, as well as Bachelor’s and Specialist’s graduates.

Procedure: participants will be able to choose one out of several task options; last year, they had to come up with an algorithm for plotting optimal flight routes based on aerial photographs, identify symbols on a moving or stationary object, or create a program for automatic object tracking on video using drones. Solutions have to be submitted to tech.vis.lab@itmo.ru in the following format: the solution’s original code uploaded to the indicated open-source repository, as well as a brief description of the solution. Authors of the best projects will be invited to a project defense.

Benefits: those who come up with the best solutions and successfully defend them in front of an expert jury will be able to enroll in the Computer Vision Master’s program without exams.

Deadlines: the contest tasks will be published by April 1 on this page. Participants will have to submit their solutions by April 17 to tech.vis.lab@itmo.ru, attaching an application form with the applicant’s full name, place of studies, graduation date, specialization, email, and phone number. The list of participants invited to a project defense will be published on the same website by April 19; the defenses will take place on April 21-25. The list of winners will be published by May 15.

Engineering

I am a Master’s Student portfolio contest

Participants: final-year Bachelor’s students and graduates of Russian universities.

Procedure: participants need to submit their portfolios: CV, letter of motivation, and a letter of recommendation. Portfolios will be evaluated by the contest’s committee to select winners. The contest is held online.

Benefits: winners will get to enroll into any Master’s program offered by ITMO’s Higher School of Engineering and Technology without exams: Digital Systems Engineering, Applied Optics, Light Guide Photonics and Programmable Electronics, Energy-Efficient Engineering Systems and Liquefied Natural Gas Technologies, and Natural Gas Transportation.

Deadlines: submit your application via email to wish@itmo.ru between May 5 and June 20. The results will be announced on June 30.

Project competition Lights On!

Participants: the competition is open to all final-year Bachelor’s students or graduates of Bachelor’s programs.

Procedure: participants can submit engineering projects that are relevant to the educational programs of ITMO’s Higher School of Engineering and Technology. Projects must fit into one of the following categories:

• Professional project (implementation of an applied engineering task);
• Engineering project (in the form of a Bachelor’s-level graduation thesis);
• Research project (completed applied research study).

Benefits: winners of the competition can enroll in any of the Master’s programs at the Higher School of Engineering and Technology without taking entrance exams. These programs are: Digital Systems Engineering, Applied Optics, Light Guide Photonics and Programmable Electronics, Energy-Efficient Engineering Systems and Liquefied Natural Gas Technologies, and Natural Gas Transportation. 

Deadlines: applications can be sent in to light@itmo.ru from March 3 until May 30, 2025. The application must include a CV (in free format), a short summary of the project (4-6 pages), and a project presentation in the PDF format. The results of the competition will be published by June 13.

Physics

Physics

Stipend competition of the Faculty of Physics

Participants: final-year Bachelor’s or Specialist’s students, as well as graduates.

Procedure: the competition consists of two stages – first, the participants must solve problems on subjects relevant to the faculty’s educational programs; then, they’ll defend their solutions before a jury; and lastly, participants will present the results of their scientific activity (conferences, papers, theses). The competition takes place entirely online.

Benefits: winners can enroll without entrance exams into one of the following Master’s programs: Advanced Quantum and Nanophotonic Systems, Photonics and Spintronics, and Wireless Technologies. In addition, any participant who has successfully solved the problems, defended their solution, and completed their presentation will receive a bonus stipend for the duration of their first semester. The stipend amount varies from 5,000 to 15,000 rubles per month depending on results of the competition.

Deadlines: applications can be submitted by 9 PM (GMT+3, Moscow time) of April 2, 2025 via the website (link in Russian). On April 5 at 11 AM, participants will receive a list of problems in their email inbox. Solutions must be sent in by 2 PM of the same day to physics@itmo.ru.

On the same day, defenses of participants’ solutions will begin at 3 PM. Those who pass this stage of the competition can proceed into the final stage – presenting the results of their scientific activities to the event’s committee.

Competition within the Scientific Spring School of ITMO’s Institute of Advanced Data Transfer Systems

Participants: the competition is open to Bachelor’s students and graduates of any Russian university.

Procedure: the Scientific Spring School (link in Russian) is an on-site intensive course consisting of several lectures and practical classes on subjects relevant to the work of ITMO’s Institute of Advanced Data Transfer Systems. Its participants get to know the inner workings of optoelectronics devices, systems, and technologies, conduct their own experiments, and – at the very end of the school – present the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired to the event’s committee.

Benefits: all participants who complete the spring school – meaning they’ve attended every practical class, took active part in training, and defended their final presentation – can enroll without entrance exams in the Master’s program Advanced Laser And Synchrotron Technologies.

Deadlines: applications can be submitted by March 10 via this Google Form. The school will take place on March 17 – April 7. The list of winners will be published on April 14.

Robotics

Roboforce contest

Participants: the contest is open to prospective Master’s students who are familiar with the Robot Operating System (ROS).

Procedure: Roboforce tasks students with developing robot control software using the RoboForces platform. The event takes place remotely. Those with the best solutions will be named winners.

Benefits: winners can enroll without entrance exams in the Master’s program Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and other programs of the Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics.

Deadlines: solutions may be submitted between April 1 and May 30. To sign up for the contest, visit the event’s website (link in Russian).

Science communication

Popular Science Idea contest

Participants: final-year Bachelor’s or Specialist’s students, as well as graduates (any degree level) of any Russian university.

Procedure: participants submit ideas for projects related to science, medicine, or technology. The submission may center on a proposed project or one that’s already implemented. Pitches can involve scientific papers, discoveries, concepts, theories and hypotheses, scientists, and research teams, organizations, or communities. To learn more about the selection criteria and rules for applicants, visit the website (link in Russian)

Benefits: winners may enroll without entrance exams in the Master’s program Science Communication

Deadlines: applications may be submitted between April 1 and July 7, 2025. An application must consist of: a comprehensive CV, a motivation letter (explaining why you’ve chosen the Science Communication program and why you deserve to be its student), and a pitch presentation with a description of the project. Applications can be sent in to scicomm@itmo.ru with the subject heading SciComm Project Contest_NameSurname. Online interviews with participants will be held on July 8-21, 2025, with results published on July 23.