News

The Twelfth International Academic Conference ‘Foresight and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy’ is kicking off at HSE University on November 22. Alexander Sokolov, chair of the organising committee, talked to the HSE News Service about the evolution of the foresight agenda. Two of the conference speakers, Ibon Zugasti from Spain and Mlungisi Cele from South Africa, shared some highlights of their research.

A delegation from the embassy of Armenia has visited HSE University. Vice Rector Victoria Panova and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Russian Federation Vagharshak Harutyunyan discussed prospects for cooperation in education and science.

On November 10, HSE University welcomed Hans Dannenberg Castellanos, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Russia. The ambassador met with HSE University Vice Rector Victoria Panova to discuss ways of expanding educational cooperation between the two countries.

An international team of scientists from Russia, France and Germany (including researchers of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, the HSE Artificial Intelligence Centre and the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute) have developed a new reinforcement learning algorithm (Bayes-UCBVI). This is the first Bayesian algorithm that has a mathematical proof of effectiveness and has been successfully tested in Atari games. The result was presented at the ICML-2022 conference.

The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals took place on November 6–11 in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The team from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science (FCS) took ninth place, winning bronze and achieving the best result among Russian universities.

An international team of researchers from the HSE International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation, the Russian National Research Centre for Hematology, and a number of American universities examined the motivations of regular blood donors. 

From 12–16 October 2022, the ‘Balkan Dialogue’ event took place at the Russian House in Belgrade and the Vojvodina Archives in Novi Sad, Serbia. Balkan Dialogue is an international programme organised annually by the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund. Students and professors from HSE University and other Russian universities were among the participants of the programme. The academic supervisor of the event was Professor Ekaterina Entina, Director of the Mediterranean Studies Centre at the HSE Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs.

Today, Russia is striving to develop its relationships with the countries of East and South Asia and the Middle East. Politicians, diplomats, and businesspeople need to be aware of the specifics of Eastern states, their traditions and culture. To develop a new level of relations, it is important to provide high-quality education for Asian studies specialists. This was discussed at the First International Academic Conference ‘Oriental Civilisations: A View from the 21st Century’ hosted by HSE University. The Conference was attended by scientists from Russia, China, Turkey, Japan, Iran, and other countries.

An official HSE University delegation representing all four campuses visited Uzbekistan from October 3–6. HSE managers, teachers and researchers met with their peers from partner universities and government agencies to outline new areas of cooperation, discuss joint projects, programmes, and activities for students, and hold lectures and master classes. The participants shared their impressions of the trip with HSE News Service.

On October 20, the School of Asian Studies of the HSE University Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs will host the talk ‘Holy Sites Conflict in Palestine. Peace and Resolution’ delivered by Dr Ali al-Awar. In his interview, Dr al-Awar talks about the history and legacy of the conflict and explains how researchers can help find present-day solutions.