• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site

Language of Generations Project Wins 2016 KIvO Award

On September 12, the winner of the 2016 Innovation in Education (KIvO) award was announced at the EdCrunch International Conference on New Educational Technologies. Taking home the prize this year was The Language of Generations, a social project that pairs up senior citizens from Russia with foreign students who are learning Russian.

The project’s team consists of three individuals, two of whom are currently getting their master’s at HSE – Svetlana Pavshintseva is in the Public Administration programme, while Andrei Lisitsa is in the Computer Systems and Networks programme and also responsible for the project’s tech side. The third member of the team, Kirill Golubev, just graduated from the Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law programme. This summer, The Language of Generations, also known as LinguaLink of Generations, won a grant for more than 300,000 rubles from the Vladimir Potanin Foundation.

The purpose of the project is to help Russian pensioners develop an active social life and to show younger people the value that the older generation’s experience and knowledge can offer. This can be done using foreign student’s interest in Russian language, history, and culture. Through the project, students are given online language practice with native speakers, while older Russians are able to communicate more.

The project made it through to the semi-finals of the KIvO competition, and according to the project’s creators, they were able to rethink a few things during the KIvO summer school. The project was initially envisioned as a social project, but through the help of KIvO experts, it was decided that the project’s educational component would be emphasised, and the team began looking at its commercial prospects. It would be free for students and seniors to communicate with one another, but distance-learning foreign language courses can also be organized if the senior citizen is a professional teacher, and in this case the course would cost money. ‘We are talking about social entrepreneurship,’ Svetlana Pavshintseva comments. ‘If students are going to pay for a class, this money should go towards the project’s future development, which includes its non-commercial components as well.’

The main prize that the winning team of the KIvO competition gets from the HSE Institute of Education is a grant to intern in any country around the world. The 2014 winner was Diana Kolesnikova for her project My Story, and Diana has already completed her internship in California. Airat Bagautdinov won in 2015 for his project Moscow Through the Eyes of an Engineer, and he has not yet used his grant. This year’s winners are planning to travel to São Paulo to learn more about the CNA Speaking Exchange, which is a project that allows schoolchildren to communicate online with American senior citizens at nursing homes in Chicago.

The Language of Generations project is now undergoing testing (the creators’ parents have even tried it out), and the full project is expected to launch in October of this year. The project will see the participation of students from different countries and senior citizens from various regions around Russia. This mostly includes Moscow and the Republic of Bashkortostan, the latter because of a partnership with the republic’s regional senior citizen resource centre called My Years, My Wealth, the head of which is HSE Associate Professor Gulnara Minnigaleeva.

It is no surprise that the jury selected the Language of Generations project, notes Alexander Sidorkin, who is the director of the Institute of Education’s Department of Educational Programmes. He adds that the project is unique in that it helps solve a very serious social problem, loneliness among the elderly, using contemporary technologies. There are not always enough foreign language tutors who are prepared to work with students one on one, and it is an excellent idea to use urban pensioners here as a resource, especially since many of them are very well educated and capable of teaching. Professor Sidorkin believes that the Language of Generations project might be able to partner with another project from the KIvO final – the Bilim project (bilimis the Kyrgyz word for ‘knowledge’), which is a series of programmes that help immigrant children learn Russian and adapt to their new environment. This project also received recognition at the KIvO competition and won the people’s choice award.

See also:

Faculty of Computer Science Members Win Prizes in ICPC Challenge Championship

The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Challenge took place at the end of August. Unlike the traditional ICPC format, in which teams of three students solve a set of algorithmic tasks, participants of the ICPC Challenge must individually solve an optimisation problem that is relevant to science-driven industry, but which does not have an exact algorithmic solution. In the end, prize places were taken by Mikhail Gustokashin, Director of the Centre of Student Competitions at the HSE University Faculty of Computer Science (FCS), and Dmitry Rempel, student of the faculty.

‘Ecology Provides the Best Opportunities for Professional and Personal Development of Young People’

In early May, the HSE Institute of Ecology and the International Children's and Youth Award ‘Ecology is Everyone's Business’ held a joint seminar in Dagestan, where they discussed the launch of youth environmental projects for federal and international competitions. At the meeting, the Institute's experts presented methods of organising project activity in the field of ecology and sustainable development for educators and young people in Dagestan. Teachers and students from more than 50 schools, colleges and universities of the republic took part in the event.

Winner of the International KIVO Competition of Innovations in Education Announced in Nizhny Novgorod

The final 10 teams presented their projects to experts in a pitching session at the finals of the KIVO Competition of Innovations in Education. The project defence and award ceremony took place as a side event of the Global Impact Conference, an international platform that brings together experts in the field of sustainable development.

‘The Competition Gave Young Researchers an Opportunity to Take the Initiative’

In September, HSE University announced the results of a competition of digital projects by early-career HSE scientists. The event was organised within the framework of the strategic project ‘Digital Transformation: Technologies, Effects, Efficiency’. The organisers selected 8 out of 22 applications. The research teams have already started to implement their projects, and the results will be presented at the end of November. The HSE News Service shares the details of three of the highest-scoring projects in the competition. The creators of the projects are staff members of the HSE Center for Language and Brain, MIEM, and the Faculty of Computer Science.

Over 7,000 Students Take Part in Data Analysis National Olympiad

Data analysis enthusiasts from different regions of Russia and 13 foreign countries recently took part in the Data Analysis National Olympiad (DANO). The results of the first round will be announced on October 20th.

HSE ICEF Students Are among the Winners of Econometrics Universiade

The results of the final round of the 2022 Econometrics Universiade have been announced. As always, ICEF undergraduate students are among the leaders – Vladimir Averin won the overall competition, while Gleb Kudryashov was also among the prize-winners.

Submarine and French Confectioner's Shop—Winners of the Top Class Research Competition Announced

This year’s final stage of Top Class, the All-Russian Competition of Schoolchildren’s Research and Projects, held by HSE University, has come to a close. About a thousand 8th—11th graders from 7 countries and 69 regions of Russia participated in the contest. The winners and runners-up were announced at the closing ceremony in the HSE Cultural Centre. They received special prizes from partner companies.

New Institute of Education Master’s Programmes Win Potanin Foundation Grant Competition

The HSE University Institute of Education (IOE) will launch new courses as part of its master’s programmes in the 2022/23 academic year. They are designed to provide competencies to those either currently working or planning to work in education. The plans have already gained financial support: the Vladimir Potanin Foundation ran a grant competition in which two HSE University Institute of Education entries won grants and another made the reserve list.

Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation Announces Winners of Two Innovation Competitions

The winners of the KIVO Education Innovation Competition and the Innovator’s Voice all-Russia contest of youth social and educational innovations have been announced. Both competitions were organized by HSE University: KIVO 2021 in partnership with the Rybakov Foundation with support from the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and Innovator’s Voice with support from the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs.

Two Contestants Correctly Guess All Three Nobel Prize Winners in Economics

The two winners of the Andrej Bremzen competition to correctly predict all three awardees are Ivan Susin, a Research Assistant at the HSE International Laboratory for Experimental and Behavioural Economics, and Maxim Ananyev, a researcher at the University of Melbourne. They both named David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens, and will now receive prizes from the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences.