Society news at HSE University

Alena Akmatova and Svetlana Ilyushina, graduates of the HSE Art and Design School Master’s programme (2017), won the open Russian Post competition, which was held jointly with the Novgorod regional government and the Novgorod State Museum-Reserve in the autumn of 2020. Participants had to design a series of limited edition postcards and packaging dedicated to the cultural and historical heritage of the region

Recognized card game masters claim that victory is possible only after making a thorough analysis of the likely combinations contained in your opponent’s cards, making it a literal application of data analytics to game theory. Anastasia Erastova, now a data scientist at the New York office of BNP Paribas, graduated from ICEF with honours. At the time, she was also the Russian vice-champion at bridge. In an interview with Success Builder, she explained why mathematics and gambling often go hand in hand, the advantages of studying next door to Wall Street and how math students can get a work visa in the United States.

Despite the crisis in the labour market caused by the pandemic, the Mail.ru company has hired approximately 1,000 new employees over the past six months. HSE graduate Dmitry Smyslov, the Mail.ru Group Vice President for Personnel and Educational Projects, played a central role in that process. In this interview with Success Builder, Mr Smyslov explains why there are not enough mathematicians and economists among HR directors, how Mail.ru is blurring the line between fundamental science and the IT industry, which types of specialists are in demand right now and what exactly makes Russian companies good for careerists.

Over the next ten years, Russia is expected to undertake a massive digitalization of its public services. The President has repeatedly talked about the need to actively implement artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analysis technologies. On January 11, the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration opened at the HSE Institute for Public Administration and Governance. Below, Laboratory Head Evgeny Styrin discusses what the implementation of digital resources means for citizens, how the government, society, and the business community are working together, and what some bad examples of digitalization are and how to fix them.

Light is a perfect medium according to Marshall McLuhan, who was the first to seek a deeper understanding of electronic communications. Modern media, however, have become the means not only for conveying facts but also for managing meanings — which is why the current agenda is shaped, to some extent, by the media. Dmitry Elovsky, Deputy Chief Editor at Dozhd TV and graduate of the Applied Politics programme at HSE, told Success Builder about the media’s strength as the so-called ‘fourth estate,’ how journalism is taught in the West, why working in Russian media is the province of the young and why the risk of ‘burnout’ is so great in this country.

The Master’s Programme Lawyer on the Global Financial Market began accepting students in 2018 and graduated its first class this year. Among them was Sberbank Chief Legal Advisor Irina Gridasova. In this interview with Success Builder, Ms Gridasova explains how to switch from political science to law without missing a beat, looks at gender stereotypes in the legal field and describes translating the clerical language of contracts into the language of living and breathing clients — a task all lawyers dread.

Foreign investment plays a huge role in determining how the Russian economy will recover after its long illness. The RDIF accompanies most of those transactions. But, as HSE graduate and RDIF Investment Department Vice President Mikhail Kireev explains, the organization also has a social mission, in particular, to develop medicines and vaccines. In this interview with Success Builder, Mr Kireev also explains why HSE graduates are sought after, how the RDIF chooses companies for investment, where you can get an international degree when borders are closed and what constitutes a global education.

HSE University’s Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology has held its traditional Christmas Film Seminar. This year it was dedicated to one of the most discussed films of the year — Steven Soderbergh's prophetic Contagion. A report from our news service explains how the 2011 Hollywood blockbuster managed to predict the events of 2020, which generation will be most affected by the pandemic, and why reality has become fiction.