ITMO Rector Vladimir Vasilyev: “Technological Leadership Is Impossible Without Mathematics”

The discussion was focused on the topic of specialist training for the IT industry. Maksut Shadayev noted that despite the consistently high demand for IT educational programs, the field of AI still experiences a severe shortage of experts. In his view, the situation can only be changed by a joint effort – and expertise – of top universities and companies. Another solution could be financial support for education provided by major technology companies. The Minister proposed introducing mandatory deductions for large IT companies in the amount of 5% of tax deductions received through sector privileges in favor of Russian IT universities. 

One example of such collaborations is the educational program AI360 by Yandex and Sberbank in partnership with the country’s best universities, including ITMO University, the Higher School of Economics, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Innopolis University. ITMO Rector Vladimir Vasilyev emphasized that this kind of synergy helps fulfill the potential of each university and allows to train mid-level and senior specialists. 

“There is so much today about the shortage of IT specialists on the market, but the same cannot be said about junior developers. The market needs senior and mid-level specialists who have a solid scientific background, and can develop, share, and present new algorithms at А* conferences. This requires a new approach to training such specialists, one that would involve the fundamental training that our universities are traditionally good at, courses in soft skills, access to the computational powers of companies and experts, as well as a community of talented professionals.  And this cannot be done by a single entity – it calls for a joint effort by top universities, big companies, and the state,” noted Vladimir Vasilyev, the Rector of ITMO University.

Aside from fundamental mathematics and computer science, the conference’s participants also shared their views on the value of physics for future IT specialists. As stressed by Dmitry Livanov, the rector of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, engineers should be well-versed in both physics and computer science; therefore applicants should take both subjects for their Unified State Exam (USE) if they plan to study IT. The statement was not supported by Nikita Anisimov, the rector of the Higher School of Economics. According to him, the need to take both exams will not affect the choice of a future field that students make not in their final school year, but much earlier. Nikita Anisimov is certain that in order to eliminate this choice, it is necessary to thoroughly study students’ motivations starting their sixth grade. 

In addition, Vladimir Vasilyev also shared the results of the 2024-2025 admissions campaign: this year, the university welcomed 681 winners and prize-winners of school competitions, which is the second-best result in the country and the best in St. Petersburg. Another trend of this campaign was an increased interest for ITMO University among prospective students in Moscow. 

The press conference by Yandex.Education dedicated to IT training and the AI360 Bachelor’s program in particular took place on August 27, in Moscow. The AI360: ML Native program at ITMO University will be implemented by its Information Technologies and Programming Faculty. The university has already accepted 30 first students in the program – these are winners and prize-winners of the national olympiads in programming and computer science, as well as applicants with a high USE score. Students of the program will develop new fundamental models, architectures, and ML algorithms.