Both meetings took place on February 3rd.

The first to arrive to KFU after were Uber representatives. Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Head of Operations EMEA, was heading the delegation. Rector Ilshat Gafurov gave a brief overview of the University’s potential and specifically mentioned the University Clinic and cooperation with industrial partners. Naturally, much attention was paid to IT, with the Higher School of ITIS and the IT Lyceum having been mentioned.

Ayrat Khasyanov, Director of the HSITIS, spoke about his School’s potential. It has already implemented projects with Samsung, Cisco, and some other big corporations. The Social and Urban Computing Lab is engaged in smart transportation and autonomous vehicles research.

Mr. Gore-Coty replied by giving some preliminary orders to his employees about studying the collaboration options.

Later during the day Nikolay Nikiforov, Minister of Communications and Mass Media of Russia, Chairman of the KFU Supervisory Board (and of its prominent alumni), arrived to the University. By the way, his initiative and assistance played a major role in the creation of the Higher School of ITIS in 2011. He was escorted by Rector Gafurov to the 3D Geo Center that was established in 2012. Schlumberger was the company that cooperated in creating the facility by providing its software licenses. The Center specializes in deposit modelling and serves many companies.

The Minister was also introduced to other projects of SAU EcoOil. Rapid development of extraction and refining technologies, implementation of information and robotic technologies, project-oriented teamwork, globalization and internationalization of petroleum companies, special attention to environmental issues, resource conservation, and energy efficiency - all these trends demand a significant transformation of higher education related to fossil fuels and their processing. The SAU aims to address these challenges.

Minister Nikiforov expressed his positive attitude towards the witnessed progress. He will take a closer look at other priority developments during his next visit.