Head of ITMO’s AI Talent Hub Master’s Program Receives Yandex ML Prize

The head and co-founder of the AI Talent Hub Master’s program Dmitry Botov became the winner in the category Program Leaders. Under his guidance, AI Talent Hub grew to be one of the largest programs in Russia: it now has over 500 students and counts over 200 graduates.

AI Talent Hub offers students a choice of four tracks: industry, research, startup, or AI in education. Students assemble their own individual curricula, choosing out of 80 courses; in parallel to their studies, they work on problems supplied by leading companies, including X5 Group, Ozon Bank, MTS, Sber AI, Nornickel, Napoleon IT, and others. Upon graduation, young specialists can fit the roles of ML engineers, data engineers, AI product developers, or data analysts – or choose to combine several roles.

“For me, Yandex ML Prize is an acknowledgement of two key principles of our work. The first one is an innovative approach to education, where we set the trends in talent development through project-oriented learning. The second one is the power of community at AI Talent Hub, the unique environment that brings together fledgling AI specialists and experts from major companies, entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators. Our ambitious goal is to transform the program in such a way that we anticipate market trends, not just keep pace with them,” shares Dmitry Botov.

In 2026, AI Talent Hub is set to transition from practice-oriented studies of algorithms to the development of complex AI products. In this process, the main focus will be on machine learning and the development of AI-based products. Within this transition, it is planned to strengthen the track on LLM engineering and AI agent development, as well as add new courses, intensives, and workshops on the implementation of AI in business, research, and education.

Yandex ML Prize is an annual award for researchers and educators by Yandex that has been organized since 2019. Starting from 2025, the award includes a nomination supported by the School of Data Analysis for lecturers and heads of educational programs who develop innovative approaches to teaching AI specialists in Russia. This year also saw the first awards in the category Hall of Fame, issued to those who helped shape machine learning as a field in Russia. In total, 10 researchers and educators were selected from 300 applications and honored with the award. All winners received between 500,000 and 1 million rubles, as well as 500,000-ruble grants for Yandex Cloud and access to Yandex 360 services.