Published on: 2026-10-12
Source: Novosibirsk State University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
In early October at the base Institute of Intelligent Robotics (IIR) of NSU the first student conference on artificial intelligence “Gradient” took place, as well as a week-long hackathon for first- and second-year students, where participants could use any AI tools. The event brought together students, teachers, and alumni, as well as representatives of the industry partner — IT holding T1.
The idea to create a separate platform for young researchers arose from the need to make communication in the scientific community more comfortable for undergraduate students. According to a graduate of IIS SB RAS, a teacher and the main organizer of “Gradient” Sergey Bespalov, Large conferences, like DataFest, are aimed at an “adult” audience, and it can be difficult for freshmen to fit into it.
— Data science is becoming very popular among young people — even schoolchildren are starting to engage in it. But children and underclassmen students are not very comfortable interacting with an adult audience where the speakers are around 40 years old. Therefore, the idea arose to organize such a conference at NSU. There is a faculty here entirely dedicated to AI, and many alumni who are doing interesting things in this field. In this context, it is easier for the underclassmen to meet and communicate with the seniors. — Sergey Bespalov said.
He also noted that the hackathon held as part of the conference showed an unexpected result: despite having equal access to AI tools, the teams demonstrated completely different solutions.
— It would seem that everyone has the same neural network, and the results should be similar. But no — they are distributed exponentially. The best results are achieved by those who have a deeper understanding of the topic. This is a very interesting issue for education: AI needs to be integrated into processes, but at the same time assignments must be made more complex, forcing students to think critically, — emphasized Sergey Bespalov.
The “Gradient” conference is part of bachelor’s degree program in ‘Applied Artificial Intelligence’, which was launched at the IIR of NSU in 2025 in partnership with the IT holding T1. The program became the winner of the “TOP AI” grant competition and is implemented with the support of the Russian Government. NSU became the only university beyond the Urals to receive grant support. This year, the second enrollment for the program took place — more than 150 people. In 2026, NSU was recognized as the absolute winner of the second competitive selection of the federal project “TOP-IT”, within the framework of which a new program has already started at the university Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) — “Industrial Software Engineering Technologies“.
University Relations Manager T1 Maria Shpuling confirmed that the company is actively involved in the life of the institute.
— As a partner, we decided to support this event, come, and support the students. Our booth staff went to listen to the presentations during breaks — they also found it very interesting. Regarding cooperation with IIR within the framework of “TOP AI,” in 2025 we launched a joint bachelor’s program in “Applied Artificial Intelligence.” This year marked the second enrollment. We began equipping our branded learning space with flow classrooms in the new building, participated in events, held the “Impulse” conference and the final of the IT camp at the NSU venue. We also provided students with our artificial intelligence cases, and the students solved these cases as part of their academic practice. — said Maria Shpuling.
She also noted that T1 involves its experts in teaching disciplines and assists in the development and updating of curricula so that the materials correspond to modern trends and technologies. This year, the company began creating a joint bachelor’s program with FIT NSU as part of the “TOP IT” project.
Second-year students of the AI Department at NSU Semyon Efimov and Daniil Krinitsyn They presented a project related to token usage control at the conference. It was their first experience participating in such an event.
— The conference is organized interestingly because there are many reports on really interesting topics that can contribute to the development of our course. While we were preparing, there was a lot of new information that I hadn’t even suspected before. This conference is our first and probably the most memorable one, — shared Semyon Efimov.
Daniil Krinitsyn added that they plan to participate in other conferences in the future, possibly with a deeper and more scientific topic, as well as to further develop the current project. The students also noted that T1 regularly conducts recruitment for paid internships in various fields — from development and analytics to machine learning, and many NSU students participate in these projects.
The “Applied Artificial Intelligence” program has been implemented at NSU since 2025 and is scheduled until 2030. Its distinctive feature is the active participation of industrial partners in the educational process from the first year, as well as a focus on a competency-role model for training specialists.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.