Artificial Intelligence and Data Science: academic programmes at St Petersburg University in Informatics and Computer Engineering

The emphasis is on the practical application of knowledge and skills. From the second year of the bachelor’ programme onwards, students work on their own project on real-world science and business challenges and acquire practical experience. Master’s students are involved in real-world projects from the very beginning of their studies. Such an approach makes it possible to consolidate the acquired competences. It also forms an idea of the project life cycle in the field of artificial intelligence, and develops students’ soft skills that are essential in the IT sphere. Students acquire fundamental knowledge in the field they study, including: mathematics and informatics; probability theory; programming; structural thinking; information analysis; hypothesis formulation; and drawing conclusions. Additionally, this academic programme offers extensive resource opportunities for students to implement their start-up projects: from generating an idea to promoting the finished product.

Academic programmes at St Petersburg University in Informatics and Computer Engineering include:

• The bachelor’s programme "Artificial Intelligence and Data Science"
• The master’s programme "Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Science"

Both academic programmes are planned to be implemented with St Petersburg Federal Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Some classes will therefore be held at the Centre. Other industry representatives are also invited to join the programme, in particular employees of Sber and SberAnalytics. Students in the academic programmes will learn how to find correlations between what users post on social media and how their personal and psychological characteristics are expressed. They will also learn about the development of major web portals, including the logistics portal cargotime.ru. More information on the projects can be found on the website of the Department of Informatics.

Students can also develop their practical skills through clinical experience at the IT and Engineering Competence Centre at St Petersburg University, without interrupting the learning process. Students acquire skills in working with potential employers, and acquire interdisciplinary competences. They develop various software or devices, and conduct an analytical opinion on the processing of collected or provided data.

Master’s students in this field of study will gain a unique skills set by studying a special block of course "Artificial Intelligence for the Arctic Region". During training, master’s students acquire the requisite skills in the field of artificial intelligence and intelligent information systems to solve technological problems in the Arctic territories of the Russian Federation.

Graduates of the programmes in Informatics and Computer Engineering become much-in-demand IT project specialists, developers of artificial intelligence or software. They are also engaged in the organisation and management of research and development activities in various professional areas.

The bachelor’s and master’s programmes have government-funded and paid tuition places. The programmes are full-time.

On 15 March, St Petersburg University started the admission process for applicants for master’s programmes. The admission process for applicants for bachelor’s programmes will start on 20 June. For more information please visit the website of the St Petersburg University Admissions Committee.