Students from Leading Universities Take Part in Hackathon Organised by MTS and HSE University

At the end of June, HSE University hosted Reklamathon, an inter-university hackathon in which participants must develop a prototype product for forecasting the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on social media. The event was organised by HSE University’s Data-Driven Communication master’s programme, which trains communications industry specialists. The hackathon’s assignments and judges were arranged by MTS, Russia’s largest digital ecosystem.

The university building on Maly Trekhsvyatitelsky Pereulok welcomed students from the country’s biggest universities: HSE University, RANEPA, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the Financial University, MISIS, and MEPI.

Participants of the hackathon received 10 extra points for the portfolio competition to apply to the Master’s in Data-Driven Communication. The winners received an extra 25 points.

Graduates of the Master’s in Data-Driven Communication have the knowledge and skills to manage products, projects, and data in digital ecosystems and major corporations. During the course of their studies, students assemble an impressive portfolio of projects implemented with the programme’s partners.

MTS is a partner company of the HSE School of Communication and was responsible for the tasks and adjudicating of the hackathon. The largest digital ecosystem in Russia, its activities have expanded beyond mobile communications to include digital services, IT solutions for communications platforms, internet, data processing, cloud computing and information security.

Winners of Reklamathon 2023

 Best Pitch — Deep Misis (MISIS)

 Best Data Science solution — DataVerse (HSE University and Bauman University)

 Best Technological Solution — Budem (HSE University and Moscow Aviation Institute)

‘The students did very well,’ said Dmitry Isaenkov, MTS analyst and member of the hackathon jury. ‘They all really tried to take a thoughtful approach to solving the issue. It is understandable that they all wanted to go above and beyond; some of them did this to a certain extent, some of them spoke about it wonderfully, and some of them truly achieved it. It is good to see that the students are so well prepared, even at this early stage.’

Valery Khegay, ‘Information Science and Computing’, MISIS

It was very cool and atmospheric. When you have 24 hours to develop a product in a hackathon, it’s a challenge every time. I really liked taking part!

Olga Chernova, ‘Applied Mathematics’, Moscow Aviation Institute

The hackathon was extremely well organised. I will definitely apply to the Master’s in Data-Driven Communication this year and I have already been thinking even more about interviewing with MTS. And I am not the only one in my team who feels this way.

Sergey Dorofeev, ‘Applied Mathematics’, Moscow Aviation Institute

As the youngest person here, I can say that there is a lot I don’t know. I am also very glad to have such a great team with whom I could gain experience. I am a second-year student, but I too am already thinking about applying to the Master’s in Data-Driven Communication.

Anton Belyaev, ‘Advertising and Public Relations’, HSE University School of Communication

This was my first hackathon, and I really liked it. Coming up with a solution within literally 24 hours and then implementing it was cool. I have a great team; we worked well together and complemented each other well.

Natalya (team Norm Nazvanie), ‘Economics’, HSE University

We took part in an amazing hackathon in which we presented a solution for recommending chats for posting advertisements. We are very happy with what we ended up with and how the hackathon went. I would like to thank the organisers and my team.

Andrey Kaverin, developer at MTS and member of the hackathon jury, added that several teams could be invited to MTS in full. ‘They would hold their own against our people, and some of the teams would do even better,’ he said. ‘MTS is waiting for their CVs—our doors are always open.’

Elena Gryzunova

According to Elena Gryzunova, Academic Supervisor of the Master’s in Data-Driven Communication, there were many interesting projects at the hackathon, but the students still have scope to improve and develop. ‘We invite all the participants to our programme,’ she said. ‘We will teach them to develop a more refined product approach and to position a product. Their solutions are truly interesting, but they could focus more on something particular, give a nice presentation, and clearly define the target audience. Then everything would be much more interesting. But everyone showed huge potential. We look forward to seeing them again at any events at the School of Communication. I hope they like it here already.’