The ITMO team, together with Gregory Sverdlin, head of the charitable organization “Nochlezhka”, received the Sobaka statuette in the “Science and Life” category. For two months, both nominees were almost head to head by the percentage of votes cast for them. "Spectator sympathies" were divided almost equally: at the end of the voting period, each of the two nominees had about 45% of the vote. The announcement that there were two leaders in the category "Science and life" was one of the great surprises of the ceremony. Other categories which each had a winner included fashion, cinema, art, music, theater, business, books, sport and opinion leaders.
According to the organizers, ITMO University has been one of the headliners of the year in the sphere of science and education. And this is clearly seen in the recognition of the voters and the organizers of the event that such professors as Vladimir Parfenov and Anatoly Shalyto have contributed a great deal in training thousands of IT professionals and scientists over the last twenty years. Thanks to their efforts in developing talent and the work of the University’s team coach for computer programming, Andrew Stankevich, ITMO University became the absolute champion in the number of wins at the world championship on programming ACM ICPC. Most recently, the team from ITMO University brought its seventh victory from the USA. Based on this achievement, the University is way ahead of all universities in the world in programming.
Also among the members of ITMO University’s team, which brought the University its win, are Vice-Rector for International Relations, Daria Kozlova and Associate Professor of Computer Technology Maxim Buzdalov. In 2016, both were awarded the Russian Federation Government prize in the field of education for the creation and implementation of "Complex Methods for the selection and training of highly quality personnel of a world-class level in the field of Information technology" known as ICT Excellence.
Well-known actress Ksenia Rappoport presented the award to the winners in the category "Science and Life".
"We are all very pleased to receive the award, because St. Petersburg is outplaying the whole world in the field of programming. The team from ITMO University is the world's only seven-time champion of ACM ICPC, and, as we know, information technology is the future," shared Daria Kozlova from the stage.
But it’s not only the title of world champions in programming that makes our programmers stand out. Vladimir Parfenov, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technologies and Programming at ITMO University, while receiving the award predicted the widespread use in the near future of the programming language Kotlin, which was developed in St. Petersburg by experts from the company JetBrains, among whom are ITMO graduates. According to the Professor, in a year or two the main language for the development of all mobile apps will be St. Petersburg-made Kotlin language.
One of the reasons for the success of ITMO University, according to the winners, is the work of an interdisciplinary team, the members of which together have accumulated both experience and skills. The University’s experts in the humanities and in technical fields have learned to understand each other, which has given them the opportunity to create qualitatively different joint projects.
The other nominees in the category "Science and Life", who fought for the leading title were the Head of the Charity Center "Nochlezhka" Gregory Sverdlin, the Doctor of Geological Sciences and Professor of St Petersburg State University Sergey Krivovichev, the founders of the Charity Fund "Stars for Kids" Aleksander and Milan Kerzhakov, the initiator of the action-flashmob "Home" Ksenia Chapkevich, head of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Mechnikov Northwestern State Medical University Maria Volokh, as well as the curator of the largest in the city cluster "Golitsyn Loft" Natalia Olina.
The hosts of the evening were the couple Maksim Vitorgan, actor, and Ksenia Sobchak, a TV anchor and journalist.
