The Aral Sea is a drainless salt lake in Central Asia, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Until the middle of the 20th century, it was the fourth largest in the world, occupying about 68 thousand square kilometers; its length was 426 km, width — 284 km, and the greatest depth — 68 m; but since the 1960s, it has shallowed significantly due to water intake from the main feeding rivers of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya for irrigation.
Jorge Eduardo Mayor Fernández is a first-year Bachelor’s student of software engineering at ITMO University. I chatted with him about his life at university and his experiences in Russia so far.
The Ayaz-Kala archaeological site encompasses the ruins of three ancient fortresses from the time of the Kushan Empire, located in Uzbekistan’s Kyzylkum Desert. The name of the settlement translates as "fortress in the wind." Built when Kushan culture was at its peak in the third and second centuries BCE, it bolstered the empire’s northern defenses and protected those territories from foreign encroachment.
As a competition winner, Artem Trubin enrolled into ITMO University to study mechatronics and robotics. He was determined to study this field because he believed that it was a fascinating, cutting-edge specialization with promising career prospects.
Frankly speaking, back in 2012, I flipped a coin to decide where I was going to study because I got accepted everywhere I applied to. This way, I narrowed my choices down to St. Petersburg State University and ITMO University. Having these two in mind, I went to admissions offices to learn more about each and somehow ended up choosing ITMO’s Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics — they promised more.
The largest lake in Europe, the second largest in Russia after Lake Baikal, and the 14th largest freshwater lake in the world — that’s Lake Ladoga. Such an enormous lake with 48 species of fish and even its own endemic seal species (the Ladoga seal) seems like it should be in some far away, long forgotten spot only accessible to the most dedicated of travelers. And yet, it’s right outside of St. Petersburg! So easily accessible, it’s the perfect place for a little weekend getaway.
For the architecturally-minded, miniatures are an excellent medium through which to peruse and dissect edifices from a global perspective. As such, here I’ve compiled a catalog of the 4 that can be found in Saint Petersburg and which I think are worth visiting.
My name is Alina Zashkola, I’m an ITMO student and now I am currently studying in the USA! This all became possible thanks to the YEAR Program. The Year of Exchange in America for Russians program is organized by the US Embassy in Russia that sends talented students to study in the US every year, covering the full cost of tuition, living and more. In this article, I want to tell you more about the application process and what you should do to become a finalist and spend the whole amazing year in the United States!
Winter in Russia can be cold and dark, but there are a lot of activities you can do during this time of year to warm up and have some fun. In St. Petersburg, you don’t even have to travel outside the city to participate in one of the most popular winter sports — ice skating! This city has a lot of different ice rinks you can visit and explore. I've chosen the three best rinks that anyone can visit this winter to get some holiday cheer and spend quality time together with loved ones.
We are all familiar with the now-household names of the pioneers and revolutionaries of computer science: Alan Turing, the inventor of the eponymous theoretical machine, Tim Burners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, and Dennis Richie, James Gosling, Guido van Rossum, and Bjarne Straustrop of C, Java, Python, and C++ fame, respectively. What is sometimes overlooked, however, is the role of women in the emergence and development of the now-prodigious discipline.