Grants were divided between four areas: launching of a new master's program, the development of a new training course within the current program, launching of remote courses, creating of new methodological materials. Professor Evgeni Magid spoke in the category "Launching of a new master's program".

This year 1,730 people showed interest in the competition, and 941 applications were allowed to participate. The top 100 ones were chosen from the general number of participants. The amount of the grant to the winners will be up to 500,000 rubles. 44 applications were submitted from KFU, three of them were among the finalists. And we are especially proud that our teacher is among them!

Evgeni Magid:

"In September 2017 we successfully launched the master's program in intelligent robotics at the Higher Institute of ITIS KFU, which we plan to make the best in Russia by 2021. The subjects are taught in English, so that students have access to materials on the most advanced developments in the field of robotics and our graduates compete with their colleagues at the international level. The content part of the program is based on my international experience of working in the leading universities of the world in the field of information technology and on the Japanese model of weekly scientific, educational and motivational meetings with students. Thanks to the active support of our program by Ilshat Gafurov, the Rector of KFU; students will be able to work with the most modern equipment in the process of studying disciplines and preparing for the defense of their master’s thesis. Our equipment includes 2 types of UAVs, 3 types of mobile and 2 types of anthropomorphic robots, 5 types of sensors, industrial manipulators, etc. I believe that our program has one of the best equipment packages not only among Russian universities, but also surpasses the equipment of most foreign universities. Moreover, students will be able not only to work with the equipment during classes, but also during extracurricular time while working on projects and preparing their theses, and they will even be able to take some equipment to their home before the end of the semester so that it is always within easy reach.

Last year, in our first in-take, we had 10 commercial places and 30 candidates, from which we selected 11 students. Unfortunately, some talented students could not get into the program due to the lack of budget places. Therefore, the KFU administration noted the successful launch of the master's program and the high demand from applicants and allowed to increase enrollment for the 2018-2019 academic year. This year we are taking in students for 5 budget and 10 commercial places.

I am very glad the Vladimir Potanin Foundation is helping to develop young programs in such an important direction for our country as robotics. Every year we increase the number of disciplines taught in English, develop new disciplines and constantly improve existing ones taking into account the development of world science and students’ expectations. The foundation's interest in our program and the generous support of the foundation motivate us even more and will help us to further improve the educational process. We believe that graduates of our program will make a significant contribution to the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, to the prosperity and well-being of the world community of the future, where people and robots will live together and interact".

Learn more about the Master's program “Intelligent Robotics”