The Rector of St Petersburg University and the President of Samsung Headquarters have signed a cooperation agreement

The delegation also included Sang-Hoon Lee, Financial Director of Samsung Electronics Headquarters, and Sergey Pevnev, Director of Corporate Projects. St Petersburg University was represented by Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Methodological Support, and Sergey Andryushin, Deputy Rector for International Affairs.

At the beginning of 2018, representatives of the Samsung technology corporation made their first visit to St Petersburg University. The parties discussed possible areas of cooperation. A few months later, St Petersburg University and the South Korean company signed a cooperation agreement. They opened the Samsung IoT Academy laboratory in the field of the Internet of Things.

Professor Nikolay Kropachev noted the importance of implementing joint projects in the field of IoT (Internet of Things). The Internet of Things today is one of the highest priority areas of development both in the technological industry and for academic research. Many undergraduate software developers show great interest in this topic. They find it extremely valuable to acquire practical skills in the sphere of the industrial Internet of things.

The Internet of Things is a «network of networks». It consists of individual objects or things that can communicate with each other via a remote connection.

The Rector of the University invited Samsung representatives to join the councils of existing educational programmes such as: Systems Analysis and Applied Computer Technologies; Engineering-Oriented Applied Mathematics; Software and Administration of Information Systems; and Distributed Computing Technologies. Also, he suggested initiating the creation of new educational programmes in any areas that are of interest to their company. Future cooperation in the field of education is not limited to the field of IT. The oldest classical university of Russia is ready to support the creation of programmes in any field of study: Law, Economics, Sociology, and others.

Nikolay Kropachev also added that there are a large number of councils in St Petersburg University which are headed by representatives of foreign countries. These include ambassadors and heads of executive bodies. An educational programme council is a unique tool for managing the educational process. It allows external experts — employers — to determine the vector of development of certain programmes.

Another area of future cooperation can be joint research projects. In particular, the Research Park of St Petersburg University is available to external users. It consists of 26 resource centres with advanced equipment worth more than seven billion roubles.

The signed agreement will make it possible to provide the basis for new projects both in the field of academic research and in education.

Mr Ultack Kim reacted with interest to the listed opportunities, and promised to discuss these issues with his colleagues. He said that representatives of two research institutes in CIS countries have already noted that there are great prospects for the implementation of joint projects with St Petersburg University.

The President of Samsung Electronics Headquarters also expressed admiration for St Petersburg in general and the history of St Petersburg University in particular. Nikolay Kropachev noted that he has extremely warm feelings for the capital of the Republic of Korea — Seoul, where the central office of Samsung Electronics is located.