The Novosibirsk State University Academic Council has approved regulations on the founding of the Scientific and Educational Center “Research Center in the Field of Artificial Intelligence”.
In December 2023, it was announced that NSU was among the winners of a Federal competition to create world-class research centers in the field of artificial intelligence. The competition required that each center have a clear industry focus and NSU chose “Construction and Urban Environment”. This includes the development of “smart city” technologies, which will subsequently be implemented in the science city of Koltsovo, facilities in the Novosibirsk region, and throughout Russia. The primary demonstration site for Center’s developments will be the new NSU world-class campus that is being built as part of the national “Science and Universities” project.
Alexander Lyulko, Center’s Acting Director and Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, provided more details,
Currently, together with our industrial partners, we are completing a work plan for the next three years that is made up of problems the Center will solve. These include the creation of digital twins for the management of construction sites, the organization of “smart” networks of sensors for monitoring urban infrastructure and the environmental situation, the development of tools for high-precision management of the healthcare system, energy networks and public transport for a modern city.
The scientific basis for the implementation of these and other projects will be the Center’s employees research into the principles of creating hybrid AI technologies in relation to the urban environment.
Another important task for the Center is to train employees at industrial partner companies. This training can range from short introductory courses to programs designed for one and a half to two years of study, in fact providing additional higher education. It is anticipated that the most popular programs will be 70-150 hours that provide a sufficient understanding of a relatively narrow problem or topic that is relevant to the development of artificial intelligence technologies. These programs will be created in response to requests from partner companies.
Mikhail Lavrentyev, Dean of the Information Technologies Department and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, explained, “We are ready to develop a variety of additional education programs. We have accumulated a lot of experience in this area. For example, we created an educational course on the basics of robotics for the Rusnano Company".
The grant will provide the Center with 632 million rubles from the Federal budget and almost 350 million rubles more will come from industrial partners, primarily Rostelecom and Sberbank.
