January

It usually takes quite a bit of time to get back into your work rhythm after the holidays. In 2024, ITMO decided to break this habit – we kicked off the year strong! January was the month of the first China-Russia seminar on AI in education, co-organized by ITMO and Yandex and featuring the university’s leading experts.

February

This was the month when ITMO landed in two rankings: as a top-three employer in St. Petersburg according to HH.ru, a major Russian job search platform, and as one of the leaders in training digital economy specialists. And then, what is now a regular thing for our university: ITMO’s Advanced Engineering School successfully passed its project defense and was named among the leaders of the eponymous national project. No surprises here!

The team from ITMO at the AES project defense. Photo by ITMO University

The team from ITMO at the AES project defense. Photo by ITMO University

March

It’s the month of ITMO’s birthday, so nothing can go wrong! The month continued with ITMO, Russia’s other top universities, and numerous big tech companies signing an agreement on responsible use of generative AI

The signing of the agreement on responsible use of generative AI. Photo by AI Alliance

The signing of the agreement on responsible use of generative AI. Photo by AI Alliance

April

And here’s to even more rankings! ITMO was the only Russian university to be featured in the QS World University Rankings top-100 ranking of universities in AI. In April, a new postdoc opportunity launched at ITMO, including an adaptation package and the chance to conduct frontier research in collaboration with major industrial partners. And in an even more exciting turn of events, the opening of the first IT school in St. Petersburg was announced, with ITMO contributing not only to the institution’s main concept, but also providing training to its future educators.

May

Oh, what fun we had in May! Faculty deans, the Director for Strategic Development, and the Rector switched places with staff of the university’s Student Services Office to learn all about their day-to-day from the inside. Around this time, ITMO and Sberbank launched an admissions aid for future students and their parents. What’s that? You want to see more rankings? We have some for you: according to the analytics center Expert, ITMO is the best Russian university in engineering sciences – not that we ever doubted that. 

June

Another ranking, this time by SuperJob, rang in the summer: turns out, the average salaries of ITMO’s IT graduates increased again! Just the right note for the start of our admissions campaign, too, with ever more formats and educational programs. One of the major such updates this year is the joint Bachelor’s program AI360: ML Native, with the country’s leading universities, as well as big techs Sberbank and Yandex.

ITMO's 2024 admissions campaign. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWS

ITMO's 2024 admissions campaign. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWS

July

“After all this time?” – “Always.” We look to the classics as we move on to the Leadership-That-Cannot-End – ITMO was once again named one of Russia’s strongest universities when it comes to training AI specialists. In addition, a collaboration with Yandex resulted in a new practice-driven PhD program in AI. And for the most distinguished applicants, we launched the individual admission guidance system ITMO PRIORITY. Last but not least, we had an unforgettable time at ITMO Family Day!

August

The first results of ITMO’s 2024 admissions campaign are in! Newly enrolled students of AI and IT subjects were even a separate topic of discussion at a special Yandex press conference. At the tail end of summer, we held the grand ITMO CONF, where experts talked at length about the all-encompassing integration of AI and presented cutting-edge research and projects in this burgeoning field.

September

This month turned out to be pleasantly warm – and in more ways than one. First, Russian school students nabbed four gold prizes at the International Olympiad in Informatics. At the head of the winning delegation was none other than Andrey Stankevich, the dean of ITMO’s Information Technologies and Programming Faculty. Yet another gold medal went to ITMO student Grigory Sizikov at the robotics contest FIRA RoboWorld Cup 2024. In other news, the specialists of the Research Center “Strong AI in Industry” published a study on the use of open-source software for machine learning and data processing in Russia, identifying the leading developers of such solutions along the way.

Andrey Stankevich (right) and Alexey Maleev with the Russian team. Photo courtesy of Alexey Maleev

Andrey Stankevich (right) and Alexey Maleev with the Russian team. Photo courtesy of Alexey Maleev

October

Another month – another slew of wins! First, three scientists from ITMO received the Yandex ML Prize! Then, ITMO won the Digital TOP awards in the category Education.

November

If you don’t know them yet, you’re missing out: meet the 11 new winning projects of the Priority 2030 open call! As always, it’s all about groundbreaking research, AI, and unlimited prospects. But helping others is just as important as developing science and education! Take, for instance, the ITMO x Alfa Bank course in AI! 155 participants from 52 cities in Russia and the CIS used it to learn all about AI technologies.

The course by ITMO and Alfa-Bank. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWS

The course by ITMO and Alfa-Bank. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWS

December

As always, the last month of the year was also the most eventful. At the Congress of Young Scientists in Sochi, we delivered talks, went on science speed-dates, and sold out all the seats at our science stand-up show Quantum Potential! But wait, there’s more: the streets of ITMO Highpark got their official names, ITMO students picked up a myriad awards at the AI Journey contest, and our Infochemistry Scientific Center and its partner Prolab announced the production of mobile “cube labs” for Russian schools.

Dear readers, thank you for being with us in 2024! We are certain that the coming year will bring us even more incredible discoveries, events, and news. We hope that you’ll learn about them on ITMO.NEWS! Happy holidays!