HSE Alumnus Develops ‘Smart Glasses’ for Doctors Treating COVID-19 Patients
In late March at the Kommunarka COVID-19 Hospital outside of Moscow, a pilot project was launched that allows healthcare professionals to coordinate their efforts remotely while working with coronavirus patients. The system, which is run using ‘smart glasses’, is now in operation at ten Moscow hospitals. Ilya Flaks, a graduate of HSE’s Master’s Programme in E-Business and project founder, spoke with the HSE News Service about how the smart glasses help doctors and what prospects lie ahead for using virtual reality (VR) in health care.
Countries Strengthen Scientific Cooperation in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic
The OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (STP) held its first meeting of the year in early April. HSE staff members Mikhail Gershman, Dirk Meissner and Elena Sabelnikova joined Ministry of Education and Science representatives as members of the Russian delegation to the event. Here, they explain which approaches participants discussed for combating the coronavirus and for preventing other global crises.
‘Global and Regional History’ Master’s Programme Seeks Future Historians, Anthropologists, and More
In 2020, HSE - St. Petersburg is launching a new master's programme in ‘Global and Regional History’, which will replace the ‘Applied and Interdisciplinary History’ Programme. The HSE University - Saint Petersburg editorial office interviewed Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov, Programme Head and anthropologist, about the programme's a global approach to studying history and its international partnerships.
‘We Live in a Decelerating World’
The seemingly high rate of technological growth is illusory: the world is slowing down and will continue to do so long into the future. HSE scholars predict that the ‘technological singularity’ will occur in 2106 and that, contrary to what some expect, it will not mark the apotheosis of progress. Here, Andrey Korotayev, Leading Research Fellow, Head of the HSE Laboratory for Monitoring the Risks of Socio-Political Destabilization and a co-author of this study tells IQ.HSE why global acceleration is now a thing of the past, prognosticators are unafraid of ‘black swans,’ and the coronavirus will not rewrite human history.
‘Keeping a Student’s Attention Online Is Harder Than in the Classroom’
After a week off, HSE students returned to their online classes this week. HSE News spoke with instructors of the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism about what kinds of new strategies and approaches they are using in their online instruction.
How Many Children Is Enough?
Most Russians would like to have two children: a boy and a girl. The others fall between the two extremes of either wanting no children (at least for now) or planning to have three or more. Having a large family is often associated with affluence. The reasons for having another child are many, from wishing to strengthen the family bond and teach older children to care for younger siblings to hoping that the maternity subsidy may help the family improve their housing situation. A HSE demographer used data from a sample of 15,000 respondents to study reproductive attitudes in Russia.
First Social Impact Project in Yakutia Goes Online
Schoolchildren in many countries, including Russia, are now studying remotely. Russia’s first social impact project in education, in which over 5,000 students and 700 teachers from 27 schools of the Khangalassky District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) are participating, is also transitioning to an online format. The transition will be overseen by the project creators—Project Office staff members of HSE’s Institute of Education.
Russian Economic Prospects: Moderately Optimistic Forecasts
From April 6–7, the HSE Centre of Development Institute conducted a special survey among professional forecasters on the Russian economy’s prospects for 2020-2021. The experts expect a decline this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices this year, but predict that the losses will be fully recouped in 2021.
A Viral Critique of Modern Society
The coronavirus pandemic is transforming modern society, reviving old social practices and formulas such as the Russian ‘flat-car-dacha’ principle, while opening new technological frontiers and creating new cultural skills. Professor Vitaly Kurennoy, Head of HSE’s School of Cultural Studies, discusses these issues in an op-ed for Izvestiia. Read the full translation of the article below.
Degree from Home: The Difference between Online and In-person Learning for Technology Students
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced universities to switch to online learning, which will probably foster the development of online higher education. HSE University researchers joined forces with their American colleagues to demonstrate that online learning at university can be as effective as traditional in-person education. Their research used the example of technology disciplines.