• ADMINISTRATION 
• EDUCATION
• RESEARCH

ADMINISTRATION

As a top-tier Russian research university, ITMO demonstrates its global outlook in all areas of academic cooperation, from research to teaching and student exchanges.

The Institute of International Development and Partnership (IIDP) bridges ITMO University with the international community.

Head of the Institute, Dr. Daria Kozlova, and the Institute's offices and departments are responsible for implementing ITMO's global strategic goals, fostering international partnerships in the field of research and education, as well as enhancing the University's visibility worldwide. 

As part of its responsibilities, the Institute of International Development and Partnership

• develops and coordinates ITMO University's international education;

• cooperates closely with ITMO's partner universities and represents ITMO on the international arena; 

• supports international students currently enrolled at ITMO University, ensuring their comfort, safety and efficient studies;

• manages ITMO's activities regarding bilateral research cooperation with Asian partners;

• works with international researchers and institutional delegations visiting ITMO;

• organizes and coordinates lectures by international experts;

• enhances ITMO University's visibility both online and offline; 

• liaises with ranking agencies to maximize ITMO University’s representation in leading international rankings.

EDUCATION

The Institute of International Development and Partnership is a place where trailblazing interdisciplinary programs are born; it’s a forward-thinking hub generating and advancing collaborations between ITMO University’s Schools. It offers cutting-edge educational programs that take into account the world’s best educational practices and meet the latest educational standards, training highly qualified, multiskilled specialists capable of solving topical interdisciplinary tasks for propelling science and society forward. 

These include:

• Bachelor’s in Humanities and IT;

• Master’s in Art & Science;

• Master’s in Science and Technologies in Society;

• Master’s in Data, Culture and Visualization;

• Master’s in Science Communication.

The Institute of International Development and Partnership is also the home to all university-wide courses, mandatory for every ITMO University student. These courses help build the necessary toolkit to be successful in any modern workplace. 

These courses include:

• Foreign Languages, helping students achieve fluency in a number of languages – options include English, German, Swedish, and Russian – to prepare them for work on the international level;

• Thinking, which explores groundbreaking and culture-defining ideas and helps students understand the factors that influence their thinking and methods for managing this process for better results;

• Creative Technologies, equipping students with knowledge and skills needed to quickly solve new unconventional tasks and anticipate various scenarios of project and product development.

• Soft Skills, practice-oriented set of courses  helping students acquire versatile  skills that will increase their efficiency not only in their studies but also work and life.

Classes are held in a wide range of different formats – from lectures and seminars to group work in online project rooms – to ensure the best learning outcome for each specific course.

RESEARCH

The Institute of International Development and Partnership is also actively engaged in conducting high-level research in cutting-edge fields. 

This is done on the basis of its various units:

• Digital Humanities Research Center

The DH Center conducts research at the intersection of computer sciences and humanities, its focuses including:

– Corpus linguistics (semantic, stylometric, frequency analysis);

– Digital technologies for cultural heritage;

– Algorithms and machine learning methods for working with big data in humanities;

– Data visualization.

This Center’s interdisciplinary research finds expression in a number of topical projects, such as:

– St.Retrospect culture map

This project is aimed at the creation of an interactive interface which is based on open-source software and presents historical and cultural metadata on St. Petersburg’s key toponyms. The project combines analysis, visualization of big data in the field of humanities, and corpus linguistics. 

– An app for gamifying the process of learning St. Petersburg’s history

This project aims to develop an interactive and multi-language online environment with gamification elements containing historical and cultural metadata on historically important locations in St. Petersburg. The platform will incorporate an extensive database on the city’s historical monuments and cultural institutions under a convenient mobile app interface which will allow users to explore thematic walking routes, take part in quests, collect achievements and share them. 

– Analysis of the phenomenon of toxicity in new Russian media and its integration in the culturological paradigm

The project is dedicated to solving the problem of identifying toxic Russian statements in the digital media space with the aim of their typologization through the use of machine learning algorithms and the subsequent interpretation of the phenomenon of toxicity through culturological lens.

In addition to these projects, the Center also implements a research-intensive international Master’s program in Data, Culture and Visualization, which trains highly qualified data professionals with strong statistical and technical skills and competencies in research, communication, and design.

• Thinking

The Center’s research activities are related to developments in the field of the theory of mind, modern social philosophy, philosophy of science, science ethics, and modern technologies, including artificial intelligence. The main focus is on the contemporary problems experienced by people in their everyday life.

The Center’s areas of expertise include:

– animal, human, and machine intelligence;

– trans-, post-, and inhumanistic approach to determining the place of humans in modernity;

– contemporary political theory;

– humanist and cyber feminism;

– critical analysis of the economic foundations of modernity;

– modern materialism;

– ethics in science and technologies;

– philosophy of body;

– modern theory of the mind;

– philosophy of cinema. 

• Art & Science Center

Merging the scientific and the artistic, the Art & Science Center conducts research at the intersection of various cutting-edge fields, which include:

– critical posthumanism;

– philosophy of technology;

– bioethics;

– animal and plant studies;

– introduction of artificial intelligence technologies into art practices; 

– bio art;

– robotic art;

– augmented and virtual reality in arts and culture;

– curatorship of Art & Science projects;

– archeology of media;

– new media research.

• Center for Science Communication

ITMO’s Center for Science Communication aims to establish an open and transparent communication between ITMO scientists and lecturers, media and society.