News

On February 5, 2024, the award ceremony for the winners and laureates of the Student Research Paper Competition (SRPS) 2023 took place. The competition received 1,730 papers in 25 categories from university students across Russia.

The All-Russian Student's Tournament of Physicists is a competition in which teams of students from different universities offer their solutions to problems and defend them before rival teams. The HSE University Faculty of Physics traditionally participates in the organisation of the competition and task development. This year, on February 13–17, the tournament will be held at HSE University for the first time. It will include two rounds—the qualifiers and the final. In the final round, three teams and their captains will compete with each other.

A group of scientists from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science has conducted a study on the ability of neural networks to detect humour. It turns out that for more reliable recognition, it’s necessary to change the approach to creating datasets on which neural networks are trained. The scientists presented these results at one of the world's most important conferences on natural language processing — EMNLP 2023. 

Experts at HSE University and Lomonosov Moscow State University examined the available data on Moscow's walkability and found the central and south-western parts of the city to be more walkable than others. However, the eastern and south-eastern areas are in need of improvements to make them more pedestrian-friendly. The study has been published in Cities.

On January 18–February 4, 2024, the philosophy and contemporary art exhibition ‘Exercises in Conceptualism’ took place at the Gallery Na Peschanoy (part of the Moscow City Galleries Network). The event posed a philosophical question about the phenomenon of conceptualism through the study of the artistic, institutional, epistemological (cognitive) and ontological (existential) status of explication, an important and little-studied element of modern art.

In a ground-breaking experiment, HSE MIEM researchers subjected Lavsan (polyethylene terepfthalate, polyester) and Kapton (polypiromellitimide, polyimide) polymers, commonly used in space technology, to ionising radiation for durations ranging from microseconds to several hours at temperatures of -170°C and +20°C, while comparing their electrical conductivity under extreme conditions. The study reveals that at -170°C, Kapton's conductivity is ten times lower than at +20°C. These findings can assist engineers in developing more effective protection for spacecraft against static discharges induced by ionising radiation. The study has been published in Journal of Applied Physics.

Alexander Usvitskiy, who earned his bachelor’s degree from HSE ICEF (class of 2013) and his PhD from Florida State University (class of 2019), embarked on his teaching career at ICEF this past September. Here’s how these few months unfolded for Alexander as teacher, how he feels about his student years, and what projects he is working on today.

On February 7, the lecture hall of the Russian 'Znanie' ('Knowledge') Society hosted a series of talks by HSE researchers and faculty as part of the 'Russia' International Exhibition and Forum. The talks covered a diverse array of topics, such as the interplay between innovation and creativity, how values are passed down between generations, debunking myths about Russia, the principles of successful communication in various contexts, and the concepts of collectivism and individualism. The events were open to the public.