The League of Universities Award is annually presented by Gazprom Neft for best practices in engineering education and attracting students to science and engineering. This year, 48 universities and vocational schools made up the list of nominees.
Six universities received the award. ITMO won in the category Digital Foundation of the Future – for using digital tools in natural sciences education. The faculty of ITMO’s School of Life Sciences presented digital solutions that help improve the quality of education in Bachelor’s and Master’s programs.
Among the presented technologies were:
- An ITMO-developed AR/VR technology for lab assignments and training to work with analytic equipment;
- AI platforms used to complete academic and research projects in chemistry and adjacent fields, including the Sintelli AI platform for organic chemistry;
- Domestic software: the COMPAS 3D modelling suite; the PASSAT and Predklapan (Prevalve) modules for engineering competences.
With these tools, students can learn to conduct experimental research, practice using scientific equipment to lower potential errors, access lab assignments more efficiently and safely, practice working with modern tech platforms, and create more flexible learning tracks when running academic projects.
“In recent years, ITMO has been systematically developing and implementing domestic IT solutions into the educational process. Digital technologies improve students’ competence when working with lab equipment, while also strengthening the practical aspects of education. We presented our experience at the competition, and the jury evaluated the degree of implementation of domestic digital tools into the academic and management processes at ITMO, eventually confirming the efficiency of a digital academic environment in life sciences,” shares Polina Kornienko, the head of ITMO’s Center for Engineering Solutions.
Winners of the League of Universities Award in the category Digital Foundation of the Future. Polina Kornienko is second from the left. Photo by Anastasia Panyuta
Among other awarded universities of St. Petersburg were Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (for their practical training system) and St. Petersburg University of Economics (for their professional retraining programs). The award was also given to researchers from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology – for supporting youth tech entrepreneurship, Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Institute – for training airport professionals, and the vocational school of the Industrial University of Tyumen – for their project Welding School.
“ITMO and Gazprom Neft jointly work on educational programs, primarily, the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs of the School of Life Sciences. In them, we integrate real-world industrial cases so that students don’t just learn theory, but work on tasks close to those they will meet in practice. Thanks to this collaboration, we can synchronize the education we provide with business demands and train professionals capable of working at the intersection of big data, engineering, chemistry, biotechnology, and sustainable development,” says Tatiana Gribinichenko, the deputy head of ITMO’s Center for Chemical Engineering.
