Research & Expertise

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely restricted social contacts for people everywhere, and especially for the elderly. Yet, HSE researchers found that meeting with friends and relatives was one of the key conditions for happiness among Europeans aged 50 and older. In fact, such social contacts were just as important for them as their health, material well-being, or professional fulfilment. The report on the results of the study was prepared for the XXI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development.

In the Expert Analytical Centre’s 2020 Publication Activity Ranking, HSE University placed among the top three Russian universities in seven general subject areas and two narrow subjects. HSE made the rankings in 14 subject areas and four specific subjects; of these, HSE placed first in four subjects and/or areas.

A mathematical model of Covid-19 spreading in Nizhny Novgorod Region, which has been created by the Big Data Laboratory at Nizhny Novgorod Development Strategy Project Office, has been widely discussed in the media and on social networks. The research was led by Anastasia Popova, a master’s student of HSE University in Nizhny Novgorod, repeat winner of machine learning competitions, and winner of Ilya Segalovich Award by Yandex. In the following interview given on April 15, Anastasia speaks about how the model was developed, the data it uses, and long-term potential applications.

Demographers have been thrust to the frontlines of the world’s efforts to evaluate the coronavirus pandemic, but so far without any weapons. Lacking data, they cannot reliably assess the situation. And this is despite the fact that the Internet, it would seem, is flush with statistics. A webinar hosted by the HSE International Laboratory for Population and Health discussed the paradoxes of quantitative approaches to COVID-19. IQ.HSE spoke with webinar participants Vladimir Shkolnikov, Inna Danilova, and Dmitry Jdanov.

The first research seminar of the International Laboratory of Statistical and Computational Genomics had been postponed almost a month due to COVID-19. In April, however, the event finally took place. Laboratory Head Vladimir Shchur discusses what life is like for scientists in self-isolation during the pandemic, what genomics is, and why gesturing is important when teaching online.

Artyom Volgin and Ekaterina Melianova, second-year students of the Master’s programme in Applied Statistics with Network Analysis, outperformed more than 100 teams from different countries to take first place in the DS4G: Environmental Insights Explorer Competition hosted by Kaggle.

The HSE Institute for Social Policy is renewing its monitoring of the population’s socio-economic status and social well-being. The first issue includes a 2019 summary and short analysis of the trends related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts have concluded that many unfavourable trends were not overcome last year and that the current crisis will worsen the situation.

Mikhail Blinkin, Director of the HSE Institute for Transport Economics and Transport Policy Studies, speculated about whether private automobile transportation will expel buses and trams from city streets in the post-virus future.

The ‘digital age’ of education did not just dawn — it burst upon us like a tsunami. Long-term, systematic strategies for the transition to online learning have been swept away by global problems, and primarily the COVID-19 pandemic and measures for stopping it. In this Op-Ed, Institute of Education research fellow and Russian post-doc recruiter Daria Shcheglova tells IQ.HSE how some students might have been overlooked in the feverish rush to digitalize education.

In the 2020-2021 academic year, students of the HSE Master's Programme ‘Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: from Neuron to Cognition’ will be able to additionally apply for a continuous Master’s/PhD track. Studying in a single programme, they will participate in the international project iBRAIN, organized by leading European universities.