Campus news at HSE University

On August 4, 2023, a pre-defence of the thesis on ‘Refugee-Host Community Conflict over Assimilation, Integration, and State Legitimacy: The Case of Rohingyas in Bangladesh’ by Md. Reza Habib will be held at HSE University. The preliminary defence will take place at a joint meeting of the HSE School of Sociology and the International Laboratory for Social Integration Research. Md. Reza Habib shared his experience of studying and preparing his PhD with the HSE News Service.

More than 450 students from more than 40 countries have graduated from 10 HSE Master's online programmes. To participate in the ceremony, graduates who received full-time higher education online were invited to the Moscow campus and met with classmates and teachers not online, but face-to-face.

This weekend VK Fest took place in Gorky Park — an open-air spectacular featuring musicians, bloggers, and speakers, as well as entertainment and educational projects for a young audience. The 2023 Festival took place in five cities: Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Sochi and Moscow. This is the second time VK Fest has been held in Moscow, and both times HSE University has taken part in the event.

On July 5^th, at HSE University’s Centre of Cultures, the first graduates of the Bachelor’s programme in Chemistry were awarded their diplomas. The programme was created in 2019 with the support of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Studying at the new faculty, the young researchers have achieved impressive scientific results, with 21 graduates publishing 46 co-authored articles in international scientific journals.

Jean-Francois Jabir is an assistant professor at the HSE University Department of Statistics and Data Analysis and a senior research fellow at the Laboratory of Stochastic Analysis and its Applications (LSA). In his interview, he talks about stochastic analysis and its applications, why he is still impressed by the training level and dedication of Russian students, and how to live in Moscow with a limited knowledge of Russian.

At the end of June, HSE University hosted Reklamathon, an inter-university hackathon in which participants must develop a prototype product for forecasting the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on social media. The event was organised by HSE University’s Data-Driven Communication master’s programme, which trains communications industry specialists. The hackathon’s assignments and judges were arranged by MTS, Russia’s largest digital ecosystem.

HSE University’s team Algorithmic Heist was among the winners of the 5^th-anniversary Leaders of Digital Transformation hackathon, one of the country’s major IT competitions. More than 7,000 programmers, analysts, designers, marketers, project engineers, and IT entrepreneurs from across Russia and 37 other countries took part in the hackathon. The competition ended with a three-day final and an award ceremony held in Moscow in mid-June.

On June 20, the HSE Cultural Centre hosted an open talk with Vladimir Verkhoshinsky, CEO of Alfa-Bank. The meeting was organised by the HSE Business Club, the largest student entrepreneurial community in Russia. The financier told HSE University students about his personal career path, gave advice on how to succeed in life, and shared the secret of the company’s success.