A big-scale Science-to-practice Conference on "Artificial Intelligence: Promising Application Scenarios" was held at School 21 at South Ural State University. The event became a discussion platform for representatives of government, science, business and education.
Participants included the First Deputy Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Stanislav Mosharov, Deputy Governor of the Region Aleksandr Kozlov, and the SUSU Rector Alexander Wagner.
The speakers included the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Region Olga Statirova; Minister of Information Technology, Communications and Digital Development Igor Fetisov; Director of the SUSU Institute of Economics and Social Sciences and Head of the VirtUm Centre Alena Zamyshlyaeva; Director of the SUSU School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science and Head of the Digital Ural Centre Aleksandr Gollai; leading methodologist of SberObrazovaniye Svetlana Antonova; Director of OOO "Uanlainer" Aleksandr Makeev; and Director of OOO "NeiroTekhnolodzhi" Yuriy Koriukalov.
The First Deputy Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Stanislav Mosharov addressed the participants with a welcoming speech:
"The development of artificial intelligence is not just a technological trend, it is a national priority set by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. This is the key to improving the quality of life of citizens, ensuring the security and competitiveness of our economy. The Chelyabinsk Region has unique potential in this area. We are distinguished by a strong physics and mathematics school, deep training in programming. 12 IT clubs, quantoriums, 118 engineering classes, as well as School 21 are successfully operating here. Today, the conference is laying the foundation for the future development of artificial intelligence."
Not so long ago, the Council for the Development of Artificial Intelligence under the leadership of Governor Alexey Texler had begun its work in the Chelyabinsk Region. It includes representatives of regional authorities, leading universities and the largest IT companies in our region.
"At the Council meeting, the Ministry of Digital Technologies presented a draft strategy for the development of AI in our region. The document is currently undergoing a broad discussion and will be approved in the near future. In parallel, practical work is being carried out: specific products based on artificial intelligence are already being implemented in the activities of government agencies, healthcare, education and security. The work is structured in a comprehensive and systematic manner. It is especially important that the leading universities of our region have actively joined this process, offering innovative projects and solutions for integrating AI into the educational environment," said Deputy Governor of the Region Aleksandr Kozlov.
The participants of the conference discussed issues of AI development in our region, the use of new technologies in education, training of specialists in the VirtUm and Digital Ural top-level academic programmes centres, which had been created at SUSU. The prospects for the use of AI in the work of modern teachers and in creativity were also touched upon.
"Today, our university is implementing modern academic programmes aimed at training specialists of the future. Several laboratories and centres that are engaged in the development and implementation of AI technologies are successfully operating at SUSU. Their activities allow us to improve the quality of processes that meet the strategic objectives of our region and our country. Graduates of our university's academic programmes receive not only fundamental theoretical knowledge, but also practical skills that allow them to create and develop new technologies that are in demand in a variety of areas," shared SUSU Rector Alexander Wagner.
A significant event of the conference was the signing of a cooperation agreement between SUSU and the Ministry of Information Technology, Communications and Digital Development of the Chelyabinsk Region on the implementation of projects using artificial intelligence technologies.
"SUSU is our region's flagship university. The signing of this agreement confirms that the synergy of government and science can bring high results. The agreement provides not only for information interaction and student participation in practical activities, but also for the setting of specific tasks by government bodies. This will allow the university to actively implement the latest solutions in the work of organizations and directly influence the development of our region," emphasized Igor Fetisov, Minister of Information Technology, Communications and Digital Development.
The second agreement was signed between SUSU and the Traktor Ice Hockey Club. The technologies will be aimed at analyzing game data and improving the training process.
"The Traktor Ice Hockey Club has become a new partner of the VirtUm Educational Centre. Together, they plan to implement a project to create an intelligent system for analyzing hockey matches. Students will work with data, analyze it, and develop recommendations for organizing the team's training process," noted Alena Zamyshlyaeva, Director of the SUSU Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Head of the VirtUm Centre.
The second part of the event included a round table on the “Education of the Future: Artificial Intelligence in School, Vocational School, and University”, as well as a workshop on the “Application of AI for Automatization of Routine Tasks” for heads of professional educational organizations of the Chelyabinsk Region.