Scenic Tram Routes of St. Petersburg

As protective measures are backing down, the desire to leave your room and explore the city (and never come back) increases. However, the couch lifestyle has left us some unpleasant gifts: I bet your legs beg for mercy after half an hour of a long-awaited stroll. Luckily, we are in St. Petersburg — the city of trams. After choosing one of the routes, you can silently enjoy a long excursion with a breathtaking view just for the price of a ticket.

Why This Period of Self Isolation is Good for Us

This spring, all of us have experienced something unusual for the first time — we were all obliged to stay home and reduce our external contact with the world. We all had to learn to spend time with ourselves and/or with those who we live with. A challenging task, I agree, but let’s look at the bright sides!

Why Don’t People Read Anymore?

Reading has always been a sign of being smart. If you read a book while taking the metro, people look at you more respectfully than if you are playing Candy Crush. But if you’re not so much of a reader, does it automatically make you a small-minded person?

Myths and Truths About the Students Services Office

A lot of you already know the three magical words that have almost all the answers to your questions — Students. Services. Office. And since the SSO is working for almost 10 months now, here are 10 myths and truths about it.

Let Yourself Be Unproductive

At the beginning of the quarantine most of us felt inspired: It seemed like the perfect chance to devote time to yourself and finally acquire skills you never could find a minute for. However, as time passes, the motivation vanishes. Two months later, you find yourself lying on the couch with crisps instead of practicing yoga, with guilt and a heavy heart. But should we really feel this way?

The Prospects of St. Petersburg’s Subway System

You realized you want to settle in St. Petersburg for a long time, but are not satisfied with traffic jams and mobility in general? Be sure that within several years, the city promises to transfigure a lot, and particularly — its under-ground transport network. Local subway seems tiny relative to Moscow’s one, though it is about to double its size in a couple of decades. So, what will the metro look like, and citizens of which districts will appreciate upcoming changes the most?

Distance Learning during a Pandemic

As for today, COVID-19 is the most discussed topic in the world. The spread of Coronavirus has impacted the format of the educational process for most universities and our university, ITMO, is no exception. ITMO has moved to distance learning, providing online classwork. That is why I want to share with you my distance learning experience.

A Brief Guide to Artificial Intelligence

An artificial neural network is a mathematical model inspired by the anatomy of the brain. It has been shown to be very powerful at helping computers solve problems that previously only humans could do. A neural network consists of "neurons" - computing units often expressed by simple mathematical functions. The neurons feed their outputs as each other’s inputs and are typically organized in connected layers. When designing a neural network it is important to consider the shape or topology of how said neurons are connected. Modern networks can have up to 10 layers and even more (for comparison, the human neocortex has 6 layers).