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HSE University will showcase cutting-edge innovations and educational opportunities at the anniversary edition of VK Fest 2025, Russia’s largest youth festival. Visitors can look forward to interactive workshops, VR exhibitions, AI-powered tech games, and even a chance to send a message into space.

The honoured guest of the HSE St Petersburg International Week was Yogesh Singh, rector of the University of Delhi. He held a discussion with employees of two international mirror laboratories and also delivered an open lecture for students and professors of HSE University 'India-Russia: Friendship of Ganga and Volga'.

The building of HSE University-St Petersburg on Kantemirovskaya Street hosted a festival devoted to the culture of Arab countries. The event featured presentations of traditions, national dances, and dishes by students from Iraq, Algeria, Chad, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.

Alexander Sorokin, Dean of the St Petersburg School of Social Sciences, presented the results of a joint Russian–Malaysian mirror laboratory project in social entrepreneurship at the second meeting of the Russian–Malaysian Working Group on Education, Science, and Technology at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Zhou Jinyu is a third-year student of the Bachelor’s programme ‘Data Science and Business Analytics’ at the Faculty of Computer Science at HSE University. She talked to the HSE News Service about studying on the double-degree programme, her career prospects, her attitude to artificial intelligence, and why it’s important to step out of your comfort zone.

HSE University was the only participant from Russia to hold its own expert sessions at the annual conference and exhibition of the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE). The delegation was headed by Anna Tyshetskaya, Director of HSE University–St Petersburg.

Evelina Bordiian, from Transnistria, is in her third year of the ‘Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication’ bachelor’s programme at HSE University. In her interview with the HSE News Service, she talks about her path to the university, whether her expectations were met, and her life as an international student in Moscow, which includes walking in the park and playing football.

Learning Russian is one of the challenges international students face when they come to Russia. HSE University helps them not only with Russian classes, but with informal events such as the Russian Speaking Club, where they can absorb the language in a relaxed and non-competitive setting. The HSE News Service talked to the organisers and participants of the club about their impressions of the first meeting and plans for the future.

This summer, Rodion Mutsolgov from the Moscow Region enrolled in HSE University after developing a project to train birds of the corvid family to collect trash. His project was recognized as one of the best at the third annual research project competition for applicants to the HSE Faculty of Computer Science (FCS), and also became one of the winners of the Ecology is Everyone's Business International Award. The HSE News Service interviewed the first-year student about his research discoveries and university experience.

On July 13-14, 2024, the annual large-scale VKontakte festival took place at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. HSE University, as usual, participated in the event. The university's tent featured a variety of activities, including emotion recognition challenge, quizzes about artificial intelligence, IT career testing, a smile detector, VR gaming, and a blue tractor equipped with a smart sprinkler system.