Kiberpyshechnaya is a joint project by ITMO and Yandex Education that combined popular science, modern technologies, and urban culture. The project’s central image – and part of its game mechanics – was the St. Petersburg pyshka (a traditional Russian fried donut – Ed.). To get the titular sweet treat, merch, or other prizes, participants earned pyshkotokens, Kiberpyshechnaya’s internal currency, through participating in games, lectures, and online activities. Then, the tokens could be traded for prizes, including the main one: a Sony PlayStation 5 game console.   

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In each city, the food truck became the focal point of a mini festival with a science quiz, popular science lectures, and a field branch of ITMO’s Admission Office, where those interested could get their questions answered and take a career test. At interactive stations, visitors tried themselves as engineers and researchers by learning to control a pneumatic manual manipulator, cracking all kinds of cyphers, and assembling molecules based on their formulas.

The lecture program drew packed audiences in every city. Lecturers discussed complex technologies through clear and original analogies. Researchers from ITMO’s Faculty of Physics explained when it would be possible to play Grand Theft Auto 6 on quantum computers, how stargazing can help find new particles, how to survive on Arrakis, and why scientists need AI to work with quantum mechanics. Egor Spirin, the head of ITMO’s Applied Agents Lab, explained how LLMs acquire tools, knowledge, and skills to solve various tasks. Viktor Sergeev, a senior developer of ML implementation at Yandex Market and a lecturer at Data Analysis School, talked about creating digital twins for recommendation systems.

In total, six PS5 consoles were given away during the tour: one in each of the cities and one for participants of the project’s online side. In each city, the winner was decided based on their participation in lectures, the quiz, and other games. Online participants answered daily questions and earned tokens to increase their chances of winning a console. To join the final giveaway, participants were asked to post a video on social media about a technology they’d use to change the world. Elizaveta Kochina from Nizhny Novgorod won the competition with her video on using AI to develop medicines.