Winners of the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence Admitted to HSE University
In mid-August, Bulgaria hosted the finals of the first International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) among high school students. The Russian team demonstrated excellent results, winning gold medals in the scientific round, silver medals in the practical round, and coming first in both rounds overall. This year two members of the Russian team were accepted into the programmes of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science.
In the final round of the competition, the Russian team faced off against school students from 39 countries, including China, Japan, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the USA. The Central University (CU), established with the support of T-Bank, was responsible for training the team.
Currently, two members of the Russian team, Nikita Kurlaev and Andrey Gritsaev, are first-year students at HSE University. They talked to HSE News Service about the Olympiad, the admission process, and their plans for the future.
Nikita Kurlaev
About the Olympiad
— The fact that this year’s Olympiad was the first of its kind greatly influenced our experience of participating in it. It differs from traditional international Olympiads like IMO and IOI, which have a large international community and a long history of training participants. We went to the competition without knowing what tasks we would face, who the other participants would be, or how the results would be checked, etc. We prepared using official materials, but clearly it wasn’t enough.
Many teams that did not win medals included participants or candidates for the IOI and IMO national teams. These are extremely smart people who, unfortunately, did not dedicate enough time to studying the features of ML. I am sure that next year it will be even more challenging but also more interesting to participate in this Olympiad.
I am pleased to have taken first place, although it was a difficult achievement. We have been diligently preparing for a long time and we have benefited from years of experience in Olympiads, including the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren, as well as our knowledge of mathematics and computer science.
About machine learning
— I've been interested in machine learning for a long time, but I didn't acquire the skills I needed to study it until the 10th grade. Even a basic understanding of ML methods requires a good knowledge of mathematics at a level beyond the school curriculum. At first, ML seemed like magic to me, and I tried unsuccessfully to play around with existing models. It wasn’t until grades 10–11 that I started to study machine learning more seriously. I read articles and books about ML, worked on small projects.
About HSE University
— I have realised that HSE University meets my requirements much better than other universities. This decision was based on several factors, including university values, campus infrastructure, teaching staff, and study process. I am confident that the ‘Applied Mathematics and Information Science’ programme at FCS offers the best bachelor's programme in computer science in Russia.
About my future plans
— In the next four years, my main focus will be on completing my degree. I may participate in student competitions or internships, but studying remains my top priority. After graduating, I hope to pursue a master’s degree in a related field. I envision myself engaging in scientific research and perhaps working in the ML field. While it’s difficult to predict what my interests will be in a few years, at the moment, I can only speak about my current interests, hoping they will remain relevant in the future.
Andrey Gritsaev
About the Olympiad
— I wanted to participate in the Olympiad for several reasons. Firstly, it was an opportunity to compete and solve problems in a field that I’m interested in. Secondly, I wanted to meet smart students from other countries who shared my passion for AI. The Olympiad consisted of two rounds: a scientific round and a practical round. In the scientific round, we were given problems that simulated real research in AI. These problems were divided into three categories: machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. During the practical round, we conducted experiments with AI software, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E 2.
Tips for high school students
— Consider participating in the All-Russian Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence if you are interested in this field. Additionally, if you want to learn more about machine learning, I suggest taking some courses. This year, there may be training camps preparing for AI Olympiads, so it's worth keeping an eye out for updates from the Olympiad community.
About my future plans
— In the next few years, I intend to pursue research and work in this area.
See also:
HSE Researchers Develop Novel Approach to Evaluating AI Applications in Education
Researchers at HSE University have proposed a novel approach to assessing AI's competency in educational settings. The approach is grounded in psychometric principles and has been empirically tested using the GPT-4 model. This marks the first step in evaluating the true readiness of generative models to serve as assistants for teachers or students. The results have been published in arXiv.
‘Philosophy Is Thinking Outside the Box’
In October 2024, Louis Vervoort, Associate Professor at the School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Humanities presented his report ‘Gettier's Problem and Quine's Epistemic Holism: A Unified Account’ at the Formal Philosophy seminar, which covered one of the basic problems of contemporary epistemology. What are the limitations of physics as a science? What are the dangers of AI? How to survive the Russian cold? Louis Vervoort discussed these and many other questions in his interview with the HSE News Service.
HSE Scientists Propose AI-Driven Solutions for Medical Applications
Artificial intelligence will not replace medical professionals but can serve as an excellent assistant to them. Healthcare requires advanced technologies capable of rapidly analysing and monitoring patients' conditions. HSE scientists have integrated AI in preoperative planning and postoperative outcome evaluation for spinal surgery and developed an automated intelligent system to assess the biomechanics of the arms and legs.
HSE University and Sber Researchers to Make AI More Empathetic
Researchers at the HSE AI Research Centre and Sber AI Lab have developed a special system that, using large language models, will make artificial intelligence (AI) more emotional when communicating with a person. Multi-agent models, which are gaining popularity, will be engaged in the synthesis of AI emotions. The article on this conducted research was published as part of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2024.
Neural Network for Assessing English Language Proficiency Developed at HSE University
The AI Lingua Neural Network has been collaboratively developed by the HSE University’s AI Research Centre, School of Foreign Languages, and online campus. The model has been trained on thousands of expert assessments of both oral and written texts. The system evaluates an individual's ability to communicate in English verbally and in writing.
HSE University and Yandex to Host International AI Olympiad for Students
The HSE Faculty of Computer Science and Yandex Education are launching their first joint AI competition, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis Olympiad (AIDAO), for students from around the world. Participants will tackle challenging tasks in science and industry and interact with experts from HSE and Yandex. The winners will receive cash prizes.
Artificial and Augmented Intelligence: Connecting Business, Education and Science
The history of AI research in Nizhny Novgorod dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. Today, AI technologies, from voice assistants and smart home systems to digital twin creation and genome sequencing, are revolutionising our life. Natalia Aseeva, Dean of the Faculty of Informatics, Mathematics and Computer Science at HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod, discusses how the advancement of AI connects science, business, and education.
HSE University Leads the AI Alliance Ranking
The AI Alliance Russia has released a new ranking of Russian universities based on the quality of education in the field of AI. Similar to last year, HSE University has joined the leaders in A+ group alongside MIPT and ITMO. A total of 207 universities from 69 Russian regions participated in the ranking. In 2024, over 35,000 students were enrolled in AI-related programmes at these universities.
Reinforcement Learning Enhances Performance of Generative Flow Networks
Scientists at the AI Research Centre and the AI and Digital Science Institute of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science applied classical reinforcement learning algorithms to train generative flow networks (GFlowNets). This enabled significant performance improvements in GFlowNets, which have been employed for three years in tackling the most complex scientific challenges at modelling, hypothesis generation, and experimental design stages. The results of their work achieved a top 5% ranking among publications at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics AISTATS, held on May 2-4, 2024, in Valencia, Spain.
‘I Came Up with the Idea to Create an Application Useful for Practicing Physicians’
Dmitry Ryabtsev, a 2024 graduate of the master's programme at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, created an AI-powered software service for ophthalmology during his two years of study. This product is now entering the market, and its developer plans to participate in establishing a working group on software engineering for medical applications at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, with the goal of promoting more genuinely useful domestic projects. In an interview with HSE News Service, Dr Ryabtsev shared his story of how a professional doctor turned into a programmer.