Best Again: ITMO Tops AI Alliance Ranking of Universities in AI

Last year, AI Alliance (an organization co-founded by Russia’s top tech companies to coordinate the development of AI in education, science, and business – Ed.) published its ranking for the first time. In that first edition, ITMO also came first among the best universities training AI specialists in Russia. In 2024, the top of the ranking is shared by ITMO, HSE, MIPT, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and St. Petersburg State University, all of which landed in the ranking’s A+ and A groups. In total, the organization evaluated 207 universities, divided into 12 groups, from A+ (leaders) to E+ (underachievers). 

The ranking takes into account both open-source information and specially collected data on the quality of education at each university. For that, AI Alliance conducted three surveys, reaching out to 170 companies in 20 fields, students, and universities. One of the key evaluation criteria was the young professionals’ salary within a year after their graduation: at leading universities, the graduates’ average salary is over 200,000 rubles.

“The main condition for training high-profile specialists is the involvement of businesses that need them. While the university equips students with fundamental knowledge and tools for growth and development, Big Tech provides relevant tasks and shares its “field” experience. At ITMO, we use AI in the majority of projects, research initiatives, and startups, which is why we collaborate with all major partners on the market, including Yandex, VK, Sberbank, T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff), Gazprom Neft, and others. This way, our students become more engaged in AI-related tasks and start working while continuing their studies,” says Vladimir Vasilyev, the Rector of ITMO University.

ITMO is actively integrating modular courses on the subject of AI into its educational programs; the university’s experts believe that experience with AI tools will soon become one of the key competencies on the labor market. That’s why such courses are offered not only to programmers, but also to physicists, chemists, biologists, analysts, managers, and others. Students work with LLMs, use AI to automate technological processes, apply it in biotechnology and pharmaceutics, and develop complex solutions for industrial and service robotics.

In 2021, the Research Center “Strong AI in Industry” was founded at ITMO, where researchers create GenAI-based technologies for management in the industry. The center’s key partners are Gazprom Neft and the association Strong AI in Industry, founded with support from Gazprom Neft. 

Moreover, three of ITMO’s educational programs were certified by AI Alliance: Master’s programs Deep Learning and Generative AI (in Russian) and Big Data and Machine Learning (in English), as well as the continuous education program Big Data and Machine Learning for Qualified Client Service (in Russian).

On July 19, the second edition of the ranking by AI Alliance was unveiled at ITMO during a closed strategic session on the subject of specialists for IT and AI organized by the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.