The Department of Philosophy of the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities (IMSSH) within the framework of transdisciplinary collaboration of scientists, has begun to solve the problem of adapting society to crisis conditions by creating an adaptive chatbot “Sokrat-2020”.
Head of the Department of Philosophy, Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy), Associate Professor Elena Grednovskaya speaks on the project “Sokrat-2020”: “On the grounds of data bases, accumulated in the field of philosophical practice, a software will be designed and tested, which will allow an international student in the form of a dialogue to obtain all the necessary information on the specifics of living in the Ural region, on history, culture, infrastructure, and other aspects of social life, and, taking into account the targeted request of the individual, will help to improve the skills of cultural, educational and cognitive competences, increase the quality of life, learning efficiency and promote harmonious integration into socio-cultural life of the city and the region.”
In addition to the academic staff of the Department of Philosophy, the working group includes representatives of the Department of Sociology of Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities, the Department of General Psychology, Psychodiagnostics and Counselling, the Department of Linguistics and Translation, as well as the SUSU programmers. The cross-disciplinary team of researchers focuses on overcoming the stress factors of the digital age, forming and developing the skills of interaction among humans, technologies and social institutions. The Sociocultural Adaptation Centre is also among those contributing to the “Sokrat-2020” project.
On the prospects that opened up before the project with the inclusion of new participants speaks Deputy Director for the Extracurricular and Discipline Activities of the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications and Head of the Sociocultural Adaptation Centre Dina Valeeva:
– What role does the Sociocultural Adaptation Centre play in the project?
– In the “Sokrat-2020” project, the Sociocultural Adaptation Centre acts as an intermediary between the working team of the project and international students. Our task is to help the working team engage as many international students as possible in their research studies.
– In your opinion, what specific problems does a mentor have to solve during the process of helping international students adapt?
– The main problem, which mentors face during the process of adaptation of international students, is the language barrier since the students' poor command of Russian complicates the communication of mentors with students. Also, it is important to remember about cultural differences, because of which certain misunderstandings and sometimes even conflicts between a mentor and an international student occur.
– How do you assess the prospects of using the chatbot in the process of student adaptation?
– I think that the chatbot will be actively used within the framework of the university's adaptation activities. The advantage of the adaptive chatbot lies in its general availability, portability, and ease of use. Only by combining such efforts as holding face-to-face events and using electronic applications by students, one can achieve good results in the adaptation of international students at our university.
“Since SUSU is a SMART-university, that unites Europe and Asia, the project managers see a priority task in overcoming the cultural gap which hampers mutual understanding and full adaptation of international students. Therefore, the technological solution to the creation of an adaptive environment is linked to the philosophical practice of analysing cultural differences,” gives comments one of the project coordinators and Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy Kirill Rezvushkin.
The application of the project “Adaptive Chatbot for International Students of the Russian University “Sokrat-2020” submitted by the academic staff of the Department of Philosophy of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities and the SUSU Practical and Applied Philosophy Research and Education Centre won the grant competition of the President of the Russian Federation. The project was headed by the director of the Russian Association of Philosophical Practitioners, Professor, Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy) Sergey Borisov.
More information on the project of “Adaptive Chatbot for International Students of the Russian University “Sokrat-2020” can be found on the президенскиегранты.рф. web-site.