News

With 2,676 participants from 554 Russian cities and towns, 8,500 sets of assignments, and ten winners, this year’s TESLA competition was a major event. The finals saw the top 200 students meet at the HSE Faculty of Pre-University Training to try their hand at subjects ranging from computer science and natural science to social science. The award ceremony took place on May 28.

Studies in lockdown, the fun of Russian classes, and the hardships of learning microeconomics: the HSE News Service talked to three international students of economics who are getting their master’s degrees from HSE University this year.

The Russian Arctic should be better connected – economically and logistically – to the country's other regions, according to researchers of the HSE Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs. If Arctic projects are to develop further, they must be supported by stronger horizontal connections involving regional authorities, civil society organisations, the expert community, and the indigenous peoples of the North. The study is published in Regional Research of Russia.

A research team from the HSE University Artificial Intelligence Centre led by Ivan Yamshchikov has developed a model to predict the success of efforts to rehabilitate homeless people. The model can predict the effectiveness of the work of organisations for the homeless with about 80% accuracy. The project was presented at a conference dedicated to the activities of social centres.

Russia’s relations with Ibero-America go back more than five centuries and include more than 200 years of permanent diplomatic relations. The need to build a multipolar world and expand cooperation between Russia and the countries of Latin America—including in the field of science and education—was discussed at the Third International Ibero-America and Russia: Diplomacy and Diplomats Conference held at HSE University.

China and the Chinese world, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arab countries, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia and Africa are gaining new significance in Russia’s foreign policy. However, we do not know enough about the Eastern countries. It is necessary to change the priorities in education, starting from grammar school. Prospects for the development of domestic Oriental studies in the context of the new stage in the development of the system of international relations were discussed at a round table at HSE University.

Russia has recently launched an organic farming initiative; a new Law on Organic Products came into effect in the early 2020. An important first step in assessing the potential for this subsector has been to identify the most suitable locations for its development. According to researchers of the HSE Institute for Agrarian Studies and the RAS Institute of Agrarian Economics and Rural Development, provinces located in the country’s northern non-black earth areas – in the Northwest and in the Northeast of Russia’s European region – have the best potential. The study is published in Agriculture Digitalization and Organic Production.

Abdul-Raheem Mohammed from Ghana has recently defended a PhD dissertation in cognitive psychology at HSE University via remote procedure. Abdul-Raheem and his academic supervisor, Dmitry Lyusin, talked to the HSE News Service about their cooperation, the advantages and complications of remote PhD defence at HSE University, and the prospects of cognitive science in African countries.