News

At the end of 2023, HSE University launched its International Mentoring Programme, where international alumni help current students adapt to the new environment, develop their personal skills, set goals, and make clear plans for job search and career growth. The HSE News Service spoke to participants about why the programme is interesting to mentors, what it can offer mentees, how it is it different from other career guidance initiatives, and more.

Zeeshan Haider, 25, comes from Quetta, Pakistan. He is a first-year Master’s student of ‘Science of Learning and Assessment’ at the HSE Institute of Education. Sanwal Iftikhar, 23, from Punjab region, Pakistan, is in his first year of the Master’s in Strategic Corporate Finance at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences. In this interview, they talk about their experiences of studying in Russia, exploring Moscow, and adapting to life in a new country.

Across the globe, countries are witnessing dramatic shifts in the relative proportions of younger and older generations in their demographic makeup. Even in African states, signs of an emerging demographic decline are becoming evident. By 2050, two thirds of people aged 65 and over will be living in low- and middle-income countries. While an ageing population poses a significant challenge to national economies, it can also serve as an impetus for development, especially in the realm of technology. What is the extent of global population ageing, what challenges arise in this context, and whether humanity is capable of addressing them are some of the key questions, explored by IQ.HSE, based on a paper published in Sociological Journal by Leonid Grinin, Anton Grinin, and Andrey Korotayev at the HSE Centre for Stability and Risk Analysis.

The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The final episode of the series recounts how men were unable to cope with telephone operator jobs and were replaced by tall and polite young women. However, as telephone networks expanded, the role of the intermediary became unproductive, eventually rendering the switchboard operator profession obsolete due to automation—not the first nor the last time such a thing has happened. As for Alexander Graham Bell, he used the earnings from inventing the telephone to promote science, educate people about the world around us, and pursue new inventions.

Theoretical physicists from Russia and Brazil are working together on a theory that describes novel superconducting materials with potentially high critical temperatures. The theory can explain many properties of superconductors with non-trivial topological properties, as well as of those with multiple condensates. In this interview, Prof. Mauro Doria from the Institute of Physics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Prof. Alexei Vagov from the Centre for Quantum Metamaterials, MIEM HSE, talk about their cooperation.

On February 26–29, 2024, HSE University’s Faculty of Computer Science will hold a winter school on software engineering for the third time. It will focus on modern software development tools and methods. From February 26 to 28, the school will be held online, and on February 29, it will take place at the HSE University building on Pokrovsky Bulvar in Moscow. Those interested can register to participate until February 22.

Applications for the fourth HSE University Competition of the Best Russian-language Scientific and Popular Science Papers will be accepted from February 1 to March 15. The authors that receive the highest scores from the expert jury will be awarded on June 6—Russian Language Day. The main goal of the competition is to support and promote Russian language as a language of science, as well as to popularise works affiliated with HSE University among the global Russian-speaking audience.

Student NIGHT is a traditional HSE festival organised by Ingroup StS. On January 24–25, 2024, the Pokrovka campus turned into a huge party area, with lectures taking place alongside fitness sessions, a dance floor, quests, and themed clubs. Designer Artemy Lebedev, hip hop singer Antoha MC, and Olympic champions were the headliners of the party.