Although St. Petersburg itself is far from ancient, the surrounding region is home to a number of landmarks that trace back to the Middle Ages. Learn about some of them in this article and explore them in person during your holidays!
Recently, the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) has published its 2025 report, which placed ITMO sixth in Russia and second in St. Petersburg by the amount of grants received for fundamental and applied research. Moreover, one of the projects developed at ITMO made it to the list of top 10 RSF-supported projects of 2025.
In a world increasingly driven by data and intelligent systems, Shuaibu Idris is building the skills to be part of that future. Currently a computer engineering student at ITMO, he values curiosity, resilience, and has a global outlook shaped by his roots in Nigeria and his experience studying abroad. Read on!
The sudden cold patch and wind gusts notwithstanding, we are stepping into the last month of spring! As the weather takes its time to catch up, we cheer ourselves up with festivals, fun exhibitions, and a badminton party.
Applicants who have already settled on a supervisor and a thesis topic have higher chances of being admitted into a PhD program on a tuition-free basis. But how can a Master’s student get experience in research and meet these requirements? One way is by becoming a PhD intern at ITMO. Before their enrollment, interns get to work on different projects by the university’s partners or the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and thus not only start their academic career but also secure additional points when applying to a PhD program. Want to know how to do that? Here’s your step-by-step guide, plus firsthand insights from one of the initiative’s participants.
Recently, ITMO University was once again named a laureate of the League of Universities Award by Gazprom Neft. This year, the university was noted for implementation of digital technologies aimed to improve the quality of education in natural sciences. Among the tools used are AI platforms, digital laboratories, and simulation environments for conducting experiments and working with equipment.
Russians followed the 3R principle before it was cool. Enjoy our brief breakdown of some tried-and-tested eco-friendly habits you may notice in everyday life here.
Colors: they’re everywhere you go! When it comes to learning a language, knowing the basic color spectrum can go a long way towards being able to express yourself, or even understand cultural connotations and references. Today, let’s look at the main words that form color perception in Russian and how they manifest themselves in everyday lexicon.
ITMO University has recently hosted It’s Your Call! – an educational forum held annually in St. Petersburg for the finalists of the I Am a Professional contest. At the event, participants get to attend expert-led lectures, work on industrial cases, and tour major tech companies; the most successful ones win the chance to enroll in the country’s best universities, including ITMO, without exams. Discover what other opportunities the event opens up in the article.
With expectations high for the May holidays, we’re ending April with hopes for the first of summer weather – and with it, outdoor fun and cultural leisure. What has our team been up to this month? Read on to find out.
Researchers at ITMO University have developed a new way to produce nanostructures sensitive to light polarization. Polarization is a process in which waves (such as light) oscillate in a set direction. By employing a laser, the scientists sensitized the atoms of silver films to a polarization of their choice. The developed structures may pave the way for next-gen medications; they will be able to identify “therapeutic” molecules based on their interaction with polarized light. It can also be used to produce photodetectors. The results of the Russian Science Foundation-supported study were published in ACS Nano.
In 2026, ITMO debuted as the host of the finals of the National Technology Olympiad (NTO) in six tracks. Over 400 senior school students from 30 Russian regions, along with Belarus and Kazakhstan, came to participate in the finals. The university organized every part of the competition: provided venues and equipment for each track, developed the tasks, and formed an expert jury with industrial partners, including Yandex, Sberbank, and other companies. Read on to learn more about each track and NTO opportunities.
Two teams from ITMO came first at the national case championship Changellenge Cup IT. The aptly-named ITMO DevTeam aced a case provided by Alfa-Bank, while team Kron Dogs showed off their skills with a case by MTS.
Researchers from ITMO University have presented the first Russian-made 3D map of bitter and umami flavors. It explains how humans perceive and discern these flavors, where the associated molecules are located, and how independent of each other the two receptory systems are. The study employed molecules typically associated with the bitter and umami flavors. The compounds responsible for bitterness, for one, are found in wine. These findings will help improve “electronic tongues” – sensors designed to assess and monitor the flavor of products – as well as accelerate the creation of products’ digital twins in order to predict their flavor before they’re made. Other applications for the map include the restaurant industry. Results of the study were published in the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry
The joint AI course developed by ITMO and Alfa-Bank for university lecturers was named best in the category Data Fusion in Education at Data Fusion Awards 2026 in Moscow.
A PhD program in Russia usually lasts around three to four years and includes lectures, seminars, exam preparation, and a thesis defense. At ITMO, PhD students can work on projects for the university’s industrial partners – Yandex, Sberbank, and others – and earn up to 200,000 rubles per month even before graduation. Read the stories of three ITMO students who got a head start by nabbing a great salary, joining top-tier teams, and launching their own research groups.
ITMO recently hosted the 15th Congress of Young Scientists, which this year brought together more than 2,000 school and university students from all over Russia. Over 250 attendees were named winners in various categories; they will now be able to get additional points and participate in the Portfolio Contest when applying to ITMO. As per tradition, the event concluded with an exhibition, where young scientists presented dozens of prototypes and projects in AI, chemistry, photonics, and robotics. In this article, we take a closer look at the projects developed by ITMO’s young scientists.
The state expertise center of the Russian Ministry of Construction (Glavgosexpertiza) has issued a positive conclusion after reviewing the project documentation of the multifunctional sports complex to be located in ITMO Highpark. The building will house an ice arena, swimming pools, climbing wall, and other sports facilities.
In collaboration with ITMO, HSE, MAI, MEPhI, and MIPT, Yandex has launched Russia’s first competence model for specialists in physical AI – a comprehensive roadmap that outlines the essential knowledge and skills that specialists need to produce robots and other AI-assisted autonomous vehicles. The developed model became the basis for Yandex Physical AI Garage – a collaborative program by Yandex and its partner universities. At ITMO, the program will be implemented as a separate track within the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Bachelor’s program.
Researchers from ITMO University, Sberbank’s Practical AI Center, AIRI Institute, and Innopolis University have found a way to distill deep semantic knowledge from large language models (LLMs) into lightweight recommendation systems. For users, this means more accurate recommendations for products, movies, and other content and a stable service performance, with recommendations being generated as quickly as with the original compact model. The findings of the study were reported at ECIR 2026.
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