ITMO is among the leaders of the federal program Priority 2030. Since 2022, the university implements its new Development Strategy that includes the its transformation into a research and educational corporation. The main conditions for this process are product thinking, shared win-win goals with industry leaders, as well as the implementation of an educational model that will train the developers of new technologies and products.

This latter point is reflected in one of the three goals of the Development Strategy – ITMO Graduates for Technological Leadership. Within it, the university implements projects that answer the new challenges of education; one of the main ones is using AI to create a more efficient and personalized academic environment.

“AI isn’t just a tool or a new subject for our educational programs. It changes the logic of the educational process. In order for the university’s entire community to deeply understand the topic and catch up to the changes, we want to shape a culture of AI partnership among all our staff and students. For this purpose, we’ve launched several open call tracks where applicants can suggest projects and events for various target audiences, in different formats, focused on soft or hard skills in AI,” shared Olga Eliseeva, the coordinator of this Strategic Goal and the deputy head of ITMO’s Department of Academic Affairs.

All members of ITMO Family could apply for the open call. This time, 19 projects were submitted to the competition. All of them were evaluated during sessions of ITMO’s Coordination Council. Initiatives involving LLMs and AI agents were additionally evaluated by an expert AI council headed by Alexander Boukhanovsky, the head of ITMO’s School of Translational Information Technologies and the Research Center “Strong AI in Industry,” and a group of Academic Council experts headed by Alexander Mayatin, the executive director of ITMO’s Information Technologies and Programming Faculty.

The Coordination Council selected four initiatives that will be supported by 1.5-2.5 million ruble funds, depending on the track. Additionally, each team will have to attract an equal sum of co-funding from industrial partners.

Read also:

Priority 2030: ITMO Leads Among Participants of National Project 

Frontier Research: ITMO to Support 11 New Projects Within Federal Program Priority 2030   

Winners

• AI Product Hack

The new hackathon will focus on the challenges of digitalizing education and administrative processes that accompany the development of educational products. For example, participants will be invited to develop AI tutors and recommendation systems that generate learning materials and adaptive tracks for personalized learning. Another objective is to create AI tools for detecting burnout, as well as decreased motivation and academic performance among students. In addition, participants will be able to suggest AI solutions to increase student engagement and automate administrative processes such as scheduling or handling inquiries and applications.

The hackathon is to be implemented by ITMO’s AI Talent Hub. Annually, the team already holds the AI Product Hack hackathon and the new project became its continuation.

“This year, the focus of the open call corresponds to the focus of the AI Product Hack hackathon: we are all thinking of ways to improve ML expertise in edtech. Thanks to the university’s development strategy, its informational and financial support, we can introduce new approaches that bring the university forward. In other words, the solutions suggested in the hackathon will not be lost – they can be turned into MVPs and scaled at the university,” says Danila Kalinikin, the head of the project, a manager at ITMO’s Institute of Applied Computer Science.

According to the organizers, AI Product Hack participants will be able to learn the modern approaches to AI technologies and create high-demand products for edtech. Unlike other hackathons, AI Product Hack will give its participants ten days to develop their solutions. With this format, it will be possible to produce prototypes ready for integration and scaling within ITMO’s educational processes.

Dates and participation options. The first hackathon will take place in a hybrid format on September 4-13 and will be open to everyone, but primarily to ITMO staff and students with product thinking and basic programming skills. Follow the project’s Telegram channel to learn about all updates first-hand.

• Hybrid AI platform for increasing quality of training in natural sciences

The project is implemented by ITMO’s School of Physics and Engineering.

The suggested platform is a set of AI tools. For example, within the first stage, the team will develop tools for transcribing and supplementing handwritten notes and lecture materials. According to the project’s creators, the platform will allow teachers to free up time from grading assignments, preparing materials, and other routine tasks, enabling them to devote more time to individual work with students. Students, in turn, will be able to focus on mastering the material rather than preparing reports and notes. They will also be able to receive personalized learning recommendations and do practice exams with an AI avatar of their lecturer. 

The project’s team states that, unlike similar solutions, their AI platform isn’t a general purpose chatbot; instead, it uses LLMs as separate tools that solve specific tasks in the academic process.

“You should definitely participate in the open calls of the Development Strategy if you want to change the world around you – especially in such a wonderful environment as our university. Keep an eye out for more open call announcements, they are held often and in various topics. Describe your solution clearly: how it will benefit its users and what are its advantages. If you’ve already tested some hypotheses in your prior work, make sure to include this in your application,” shares Grigory Frantsuzov, the head of the project and a lecturer at ITMO’s Faculty of Physics.

Dates and participants. The solution is slated for testing in the fall of 2025: first, it will be evaluated by students and lecturers of the School of Physics and Engineering, and then it will be scaled to include chemistry and biology. You can stay up to date with the development process here (in Russian).

• Professional development program Contemporary AI in Higher Education: Classic and Fundamental Models as Assistants to Lecturers

This project is developed by a team of ITMO’s School of Translational Information Technologies and Strategic Communication Department with contributions from other departments.

According to the developers, this CPD (continuous professional development) program will equip its students with a systematic understanding of AI and help develop competencies beneficial in customizing and integrating such technologies into the educational process.

“The application of AI, especially in education and science, is one of the most in-demand topics at the moment. However, it still remains relatively unexplored. In this program, we will see how AI can be applied in education, which problems it can solve and how, and which tasks can be delegated to AI, while others remain the lecturer’s responsibility,” explains Alexandra Klimova, the head of the project and the deputy head of the School of Translational Information Technologies.

In addition to learning how to apply specific AI solutions in education and science, participants of the program will learn about trends and features of classic machine learning methods and LLMs, the ethics of their use, safety, and evaluation of AI system quality. Participants will also learn to formulate tasks in their field of expertise using prompt engineering, search for information, process data (including scientific), create texts and graphic information, critically assess results, address organizational and management issues, and customize AI tools for their work.

Dates and participation options. The program will be open to all ITMO lecturers. To join the basic-level course, they’ll need a general understanding of AI technologies, and for the advanced one – a higher education degree in math or IT. It’s planned that the course will take on two cohorts of 75 students, the first iteration of the course will be held on August 25 - October 31. Studies will be held in a hybrid format: pre-recorded theoretical classes and online consultations, as well as online work with mentors in teams. With any questions, reach out to the team here: tint@itmo.ru.

• Professional development program AI EDU Today

This project is implemented by ITMO’s AI Talent Hub with experts from partner companies.

The program is dedicated to the application of AI tools in higher education, including multimodal and large language models, automated AI agents, as well as data analysis and generation.

With support from industry experts, participants will take part in a business game where they will need to adapt the education process to the widespread use of neural networks. Working in teams, they will create a new educational program using AI, set up their own AI agents, and present their strategy for integrating AI into the educational process.

Upon completing the training, participants will gain basic knowledge about the functions, capabilities, and limitations of generative AI, including its ethical and legal aspects. In addition, they will master the principles of creating advanced prompts and working with AI agents to solve practical educational tasks not only in engineering but also in natural science disciplines.

“I took part in several competitions, but none were like the open call. At industrial companies, initiatives usually come down the hierarchy from top to bottom, and employees are required to carry them out in a directive manner, which is not the most effective format. At ITMO, everything is different. If a staff member or a student is ready to take on the responsibility and their professional ambitions overlap with the Development Strategy’s objectives, they can submit an idea – and get a chance to implement it. Don’t hesitate to take part in the open calls. However, in order to win, you have to demonstrate your motivation and expertise, the alignment with ITMO’s goals, and the ability to attract industrial partners,” shares Oleg Shatov, the head of the project and a lead manager at ITMO’s Institute of Applied Computer Science.

Dates and participation options. The program will take the form of a three-day intensive course on one of ITMO’s campuses. All of the university’s lecturers are invited to join in, regardless of their field and level of AI experience. The first iteration of the course is to be held on August 15-17. Follow AI Talent Hub on Telegram so as not to miss the start of registration.

As a spin-off, the program’s organizers are planning to hold open lectures supported by X5 Tech, AI Talent Hub’s industrial partner, as well as training for lecturers of other Russian universities and round-table discussions with universities in South-East Asia and Latin America in collaboration with ITMO’s Faculty of Technological Management of Innovations.