On April 16-17 the employees of the Laboratory of intelligent robotic systems (LIRS) of the Higher Institute of ITIS participated in the All-Russian applied science conference "Master's Degree Space: Global in local", which was held on the basis of the Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.Tupolev - KAI. The organizers of the event were the Vladimir Potanin Foundation and the National Personnel Training Foundation.
For the fourth year in a row, the conference has been a platform for networking and distribution of the best educational practices, models of network cooperation between universities.
The following topics were discussed at the conference:
The conference is oriented on leading experts in the field of master's degree, representatives of federal and regional executive authorities, business and public organizations, university teachers, including the winners of the grant competition of 2017/2018 Vladimir Potanin Scholarship Program and representatives of the Russian main universities developing new educational products - master's degree programs, training and online courses and teaching technologies. A Head of the master's program "Intelligent Robotics" of the Higher Institute of ITIS Professor Evgeni Magid received a grant in the category "Creation of a new master's program".
Professor Evgeni Magid about the conference:
"The conference brought together a large number of specialists from different Russian universities, who are interested in improving the quality of master's programs in the country's universities. This is a great chance to meet colleagues, learn about their experience and share your own one. In September 2017 we launched a master's program in intelligent robotics of international level at the Higher Institute of ITIS (the program is run in English language). I was interested to hear the opinion of senior colleagues about teaching in English and including disciplines to the program, within which our students will be able to improve their so-called soft skills: communication, leadership, an ability to present their ideas and others.
Firstly, today our colleagues expressed the opinion that there is no escaping from teaching in English if we want to be competitive on the world stage, so that our graduates have the opportunity to continue their studies abroad, and foreign applicants can study with at the Higher Institute of ITIS, in Kazan. Secondly, other universities have also begun to pay significant attention to the soft skills development. So, the rector of KAI himself gives lectures on the development of leadership qualities at the KAI, and the ITMO University is further and opened the master's program on scientific communication. The initiative of the ITMO University caused a very heated and rather tough discussion, since the substitution of the master's degree guidelines from the ability to do science caused a wave of objective criticism. As part of our master's program, we definitely pay attention to soft skills, but first of all, we train professionals in the field of robotics”.