HSE Students to Create Model for Smart City

Photo: www.gusev-online.ru

In October 2015 HSE and GS Group signed an agreement to work together on educational initiatives. One of its priorities is a student project to create working models for a smart city. The results could be used to make innovational infrastructures for small cities in Russia.

 Work will be based at Technopolis GS in Gusev, Kaliningrad Region, and guided by GS Group company specialists and teachers from the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences and the Institute of Regional Studies and Urban Planning (IRSUP).

‘The agreement offers our students new horizons to apply their knowledge and skills to real life projects,’ says Irina Ilina, Director of IRSUP. ‘The project to create a concept for the development of Technopolis GS as a smart city is a new pilot scheme in this field. I hope it means we will see the results of lots of successful student projects and applied scientific research in future.’  

Twelve students on the Government and Municipal Administration, Project Management and Urban Development and Spatial Planning courses will be working on the project. Mixing students from different programmes should make for an interdisciplinary approach to designing the concept of developing an innovational cluster. The students will be divided into four teams to design the infrastructural elements of a smart city, a management system, formats for interaction with municipal and federal government departments and communication with the city community. Students will have a month to work on their design and the winners will present their projects at Technopolis GS where they will be able to see a real smart city prototype.  

‘Technopolis GS, a model for innovational development piloted by GS Group, is one possible way to regenerate small Russian cities, explains Andrei Bezrukov, GS Group’s Director of Strategic Marketing. ‘It is a populated area with new hi-tech industries and the latest smart city infrastructure under construction with energy efficient technology and smart grids. At Technopolis GS we are creating one of the first functioning smart cities in Russia. This cooperation with HSE is a great opportunity to introduce talented students to finding solutions to today’s pressing problems.’     

Cooperation between HSE and GS Group will increase students’ practical skills and involve them in project work in strategic and territorial planning and urban development.  

For more information on GS Group, follow the link.