Research & Expertise

At the end of 2022, the results of the Project Competition in Basic Science Research for Intercampus Departments were announced. This was the inaugural competition, and focused on encouraging new research teams at HSE University and developing intercampus cooperation in the field of fundamental research. Here, HSE News Services looks at four winning projects.

Second-year students of the Master of Computer Vision programme have presented their projects in this cutting-edge field in AI. The committee included representatives of the programme’s partners from Huawei, YADRO and SBERLAB, as well as Valery Cherepennikov, IT advisor to the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Every day, new technologies and institutional solutions appear that expand people’s opportunities. Which technologies are effective at this, and which have yet to be created to meet the challenges of the modern era? How do people choose technologies and how can the choice become a conscious one? HSE University’s strategic project Success and Self-Sustainability of the Individual in a Changing World aims to answer these questions and more.

Researchers of the HSE Laboratory for Cognitive Psychology of Digital Interfaces Nadezhda Glebko and  Elena Gorbunova have examined the so-called ‘Baby Duck Syndrome’—the tendency among digital product users to prefer the the old version of an interface over a new one. The authors compare this phenomenon to similar cognitive biases such as the mere-exposure effect, the endowment effect, and the status quo bias. Their findings are published in Psikhologicheskie Issledovaniya [Psychological Studies].

As part of its G20 Presidency, India is hosting the Research and Innovation Initiative Gathering (RIIG). Alexey Ivanov, Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre and Academic Supervisor of the HSE Technology Transfer Centre, represented Russia at the RIIG kick-off meeting. The Russian delegation also included representatives of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education and a number of research institutes.

These were the findings made by researchers of the HSE Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technology and the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Geography. They studied tree rings of Scots pines for an insight into the region's climatic past and published their results in Dendrochronologia.

Having analysed the statistics of players in the German Bundesliga, researchers from the HSE University Laboratory of Sports Studies found that the impact of defensive actions by players during a football match is much greater than contribution of such actions to their market value. The results of the study were published in the journal Applied Economics.

HSE researchers have developed an algorithm for estimating individual response preparation period duration. Their approach can help diagnose disruptions in decision-making and motor functions associated with certain diseases. The study findings are published in PLoS ONE. The research was financed by a megagrant from the Russian government as part of the 'Science and Universities' National Project.

Focusing on mortality from the COVID-19 virus is no more effective than calls to wear masks and save lives, but it significantly increases people's anxiety. After conducting an experiment with over 15,000 respondents from 84 countries, an international group of researchers, including scientists from HSE, came to this conclusion. The results of the study have been published in the Affective Science journal.

Keeping up with rapidly changing technology requires accelerated digital transformation in various spheres of the economy and science, as well as a broader application of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Technological advancement also requires conceptualisation and relevant legal regulation. The HSE News Service interviewed HSE Vice President Professor Igor Agamirzian, Academic Supervisor of the strategic project 'Digital Transformation: Technologies, Effects, Efficiency', about ongoing research into digitalisation and its outcomes.