ITMO – a PI-centric university 

This has been the university’s fourth PI School, an initiative directly linked to ITMO’s PI-centric development model. Per the model, heads of educational programs and projects participate in the university’s Academic Council and in project groups; they also decide on the university’s development strategy, ongoing projects, partners, teams, as well as funding sources and distribution.

Currently, there are a total of 131 PIs (principal investigators) at ITMO. They combine academic and managerial roles, define frontier research areas, conduct research, manage their teams, and build partnerships. Among the latest PI-headed projects at ITMO is a digital assistant for chemists, a neuromorphic photonics AI model, and new modeling methods for active matter studies.

Alongside PIs, 130 heads of educational programs design, create, implement, and develop their programs; they select lecturers and students while also managing projects such as the center for school student competitions and the program for AI leaders.

“It’s often said that one of the main traits of a good leader is the ability to delegate tasks. It’s important for team members to be more adept at certain things than their leader – and that’s the culture we strive to develop at ITMO, a culture built on horizontal communication and a project-based approach. PI School plays an important role in this by helping establish robust connections between the university’s departments, strengthening collaborations, and forming an environment where every contribution is valued,” states Daria Kozlova, ITMO’s Director for Strategic Development​.

From science to leadership

The school’s participants spent the week communicating with experts about the changes in higher education, the reasons for businesses to invest in science, and the skills needed to turn a research project into a successful product.

Experienced ITMO PIs Andrey Bogdanov, Anton Kuznetsov, Arina Kremleva, and Elena Krivoshapkina talked about their careers and the challenges on the path from researcher to group leader; they also offered advice on managing teams and projects. Their insights helped the school’s participants to see different trajectories of professional growth and ask important questions about making a start in their careers.

Additionally, the program included lectures by invited speakers:

• Andrey Volkov, the scientific supervisor of the Priority 2030 national program, talked about the development of universities and the changes they should expect in the future; 
• Pavel Podkorytov, the CEO of Napoleon IT and a co-founder of AI Talent Hub, explained why industry invests in education;
• Andrei Kirilenko, the head of ML product development at Yandex Cloud, discussed the development trajectory of an ML technology into a product; 
• Georgy Rypalov, the IT lead at IT management cluster of Acquiring at Sberbank, walked the audience through the company’s product development pipeline;
• Sergey Zavelishko, the head of AI products at Samolet, talked about planning personal development at the intersection of career, science, and education.

Projects for ITMO’s updated development strategy

The event culminated with presentations of projects developed by participant teams over the week. All of them were focused on ITMO’s updated development strategy and its strategic goals: 

ITMO – a talent-centric corporation. One of the university’s priorities is the search, recruitment, development, and support of talented applicants, lecturers, scientists, and managers, as well as the development of an environment where they can create and grow. Within this objective, PI School participants focused on creating systemic approaches to recruitment and development of future leaders and teams at the university.

ITMO graduates for technological leadership. For ITMO, it’s important to implement an educational model that would train globally competitive graduates who require zero workplace adaptation time and who are ready to work within the logic of technological leadership in partnership with AI. In this area, the teams at the school suggested initiatives aimed at updating professional development programs and promoting ITMO’s expertise as a research and educational corporation.

ITMO – a technological corporation. One of the university’s objectives is the development and implementation of crucial science-intensive technologies and products within ITMO’s priority fields in collaboration with the university’s partners. To this end, the school’s participants suggested ideas on expanding formats of interaction with industry and developing new mechanisms for forming teams tailor-made for specific tasks of business.

After the PI School, participants will have a month to improve their projects and present them at a session of the university’s Coordination Council to potentially be included in ITMO’s development strategy.

One of the projects was presented by the team involving Anna Shtang, a second-year Master’s student at the Faculty of Ecotechnologies. The team suggested a concept for an intelligent multifunctional platform that will help form research and engineering teams in response to requests of industrial partners. The team members are hoping to present this idea at a session of the Coordination Council.

“I am about to graduate from my Master’s program and after that – continue my research as a PhD student. With my supervisor Roman Uvarov, I am part of a Russian Science Foundation-supported team, and I am also working on my own project alongside it: I am developing a portable gas sensor for monitoring of methane and carbon dioxide emissions at solid waste landfills. My project is supported by the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises. In the future, I want to become a confident leader with my own team for more large-scale projects. Joining the PI School was an important step for me: it gave me a better understanding of how I can reach my goal, as well as offered a lot of networking opportunities. This helped me take a “bird’s-eye” look at the university through the lens of its strategic goals and partners, rather than only viewing it through my eyes as a student focused on her own project,” shared Ms. Shtang.