Synergy of Education and Business: A Meeting of Students from the TOP IT NSU Program with Industry Partners — Leaders of the IT Industry Took Place at the University

At Novosibirsk State University, a meeting took place between students of the new FIT bachelor’s program, a TOP-level educational program in the IT field “Technologies of Industrial Software Engineering” (TIPI), and leaders of the IT industry — representatives of industrial partners. The program has several industrial partners, some of whom participated in the meeting with the students: the anchor partner is the company LLC “Center of Financial Technologies” (CFT), as well as YADRO (LLC KNS GROUP), “SKB Kontur,” and 2GIS. In the lecture hall building of NSU, first-year TIPI students, teachers, and leaders of the Educational Center “Technologies of Industrial Software Engineering” of the Faculty of Information Technology, on the basis of which the program is implemented, gathered.

The meeting was opened by the dean Faculty of Information Technology, NSU, director of the Center, Mikhail Mikhailovich Lavrentiev. He congratulated the students on the start of classes in the TOP-level program and noted that NSU won a large federal grant for the development and implementation of the program, one of the conditions of which was mandatory interaction with industry leaders — large science-intensive high-tech IT companies, their participation in the development, implementation, and co-financing of the program.

— Friendly relationships with our industrial partners have grown into deep strategic cooperation. Today, leading IT industry companies take direct part in the development and implementation of our program, acting as experts representing the knowledge-intensive high-tech IT business. Such intensive interaction allows us to create an educational program maximally adapted to the real demands of the market and to consider the prospects of rapid technological development. Our university has always been and remains among the top three Russian universities; we won the federal competition by a significant margin. The program we created jointly with our industrial partners fully meets the expectations of the Ministry of Digital Development and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education., — emphasized Mikhail Lavrentyev.

He also pointed out to the students that they had applied to one set of specialties but ended up in others — and this is a program requirement.

— I envy you: when I was studying, there was no such opportunity. We simply worked hard at learning — those who managed stayed to work in Akademgorodok. Your situation is completely different. Now you have the chance to immerse yourself in the industry, understand what you can do there, how interesting it is for you, and receive an education worthy of our university., he said.

The anchor partner of the program is the company LLC “Center for Financial Technologies,” with which NSU has a long history of cooperation, including the creation of the joint “SHIFT” laboratory. Artem Olegovich Kalichkin, the director of the “Infrastructure” division at JSC “CFT”, told the students about the company. CFT was established in 1993 and specializes in technologies and solutions for the banking sector and payment systems. The company is involved in the implementation of the Fast Payment System and the digital ruble project. Its flagship product is the automated banking system “CFT Bank”.

— The financial sector for IT is a very interesting story. These are high-load systems that require powerful clustering and distributed computing design. There are events such as the closing of a reporting period or the so-called “Black Friday,” when unpredictable traffic growth occurs. It is these events that force the creation of modern solutions that allow the instant deployment of dozens of additional virtual servers and withstand the load, — noted Artem Kalichkin.

He also emphasized that he himself is a graduate of the Faculty of Information Technology at NSU and has been teaching at the faculty since 2012, holds the title of Industrial Professor at NSU, and the position of associate professor in the Department of Informatics Systems at FIT. Many employees of the CFT are graduates of FIT NSU who have returned to the faculty to teach and participate in the development of new educational programs. This year, together with colleagues, a year-long course on information security was launched, divided into two successive modules — technological and regulatory. The company is also involved in the development and implementation of a TOP-level program in IT, “Industrial Software Engineering Technologies.”

— The industrial component is not just the cherry on top; it is the 95% that distinguishes academic education from real work. It’s great that you are entering such an interesting program. We are here, always ready to help, participate in training, and support you., — concluded Artem Kalichkin.

The next partner of the program was the company YADRO (LLC KNS GROUP). Unlike CFT, whose main development is located in Akademgorodok, YADRO’s development is situated in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The holding produces server equipment, communication equipment, and is in need of good university graduates. A company representative, senior manager for the development of educational programs, spoke to the students remotely, Maksim Deinega. He said that YADRO is a company “about hardware”: its main products are servers, data storage systems, network equipment, and mobile communication base stations. YADRO is part of a holding company that also includes companies engaged in satellite communications and information security.

— We haven’t existed for very long — since 2014, so we are now 12 years old. And today, we are effectively the largest company in Russia manufacturing servers and data storage systems, as well as one of the few companies in the world capable of producing operator-class cellular base stations, — noted Maksim Deinega.

Students were also informed about the educational opportunities offered by the company: practical courses and open lectures by engineers are available on the educational initiatives portal, internships can be participated in, and projects of the joint YADRO laboratory can be joined.

Head of the joint YADRO laboratory at NSU Alexander Alexandrovich Vlasov added that there are currently about 30 students in the laboratory and around 10 projects are being implemented in areas interesting to the company.

— I would like to disagree with Mikhail Mikhailovich regarding the existence of leading universities and the need for us to catch up to them. Just today, one of the third-year students participated in the “Microelectronics” conference — the leading conference on this topic, featuring all the strongest universities. His report was recognized as the best and received an award. This means that our university, thanks to the tasks set by the company and thanks to you who solve these tasks, takes high positions at conferences and advances our industry. — emphasized Alexander Vlasov.

Another partner of the TOP IT program is the company “SKB Kontur” from Yekaterinburg. As noted at the meeting, the company develops an ecosystem for business and invests in education, infrastructure, and the IT community. “Kontur” has been operating in the industry for 38 years, produces 60 products used by more than 2.5 million clients.

Among the program’s partners is also the company 2GIS. It is a geographic information system and city information directory, whose products are used in 1,460 cities in Russia and 11 countries worldwide. The monthly audience of advertisers exceeds 80 thousand, and the company employs more than 7 thousand staff members.

The TOP IT program “Technologies of Industrial Software Engineering” has been implemented at NSU since 2026. Its distinctive feature is the active involvement of industrial partners in the creation and implementation of the program, engaging the IT industry in the educational process from the first year: practical training starts as early as the second semester, and key professional competencies have been formulated by experts from major IT companies.