‘Data Be New Hydrocarbons’, FinU Rector Outlines Main Development Trends in AI in Education

On March 21, 2024, Stanislav Prokofiev, Rector of the FinU, spoke at the plenary session of the VI International Scientific Forum “Step into the Future” at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

“By the end of next year, FinU plans to train all university faculty in the basics of AI. About 70% of students use generative systems in their research papers in one way or another. Therefore, it is important that there is always an expert teacher nearby,” said Stanislav Prokofiev, Rector of the FinU, during a report on trends in the AI development in the higher education system, taking into account the challenges of the national Data Economics project.

Among the key areas of activity of the academic community, Stanislav Prokofiev highlighted a significant increase in the share of alumni employed in IT specialties, the development of interdisciplinary programs that will allow students of non-core specialties to also gain deep and serious knowledge and digital skills, as well as professional development of existing developers.

“It seems to me that the philosophy of the new national project is to increase the efficiency of the economy based on digital solutions and new services, including artificial intelligence. Today, data are actually becoming new hydrocarbons for Russia, their scale and volume require technologies for their processing and involvement in economic turnover,” Stanislav Prokofiev explained, speaking at the plenary session of the VI International Scientific Forum “Step into the Future” at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics on March 21, 2024.

Speaking about the experience of the FinU, the country’s leading financial and economic university, Stanislav Prokofiev noted the significant role of fundamental and applied research in the field of AI. The Rector of the FinU explained that the university’s experts work together with specialists from institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and among the applied projects he noted cooperation with PJSC Aeroflot and large insurance companies – the development of special modules that allow assessing damage in the event of insured events. Stanislav Prokofiev also stressed the need to develop a modern educational and scientific infrastructure.

In addition, the Rector of the FinU drew attention to the importance of involving young people in relevant educational projects, supporting student entrepreneurship in information technology, launching innovative educational programs with in-depth study of mathematics, neural networks and machine vision, 

“Awakening student intelligence and encouraging its development is the key task of higher education,” Stanislav Prokofiev added.

The speakers of the plenary session of the forum were also Natalia Tretyak, CEO of the Prosveshchenie Group of Companies, Yulia Vinodaeva, Head of the Department of Environmental Management and Environmental Protection of the City of Moscow, and the President of the recruiting portal SuperJob.ru Alexey Zakharov, Sergey Popkov, co-founder and Director of Business Development at Skillbox.

The experts discussed successful examples of the launch of AI into big data processing, outlined trends in the development of online education in information technology, labor market demands and significant skills of specialists of the future. Summing up, the participants of the discussion noted the importance of fundamental knowledge, creative thinking and personal qualities, which will become the basis for the competent and effective development of technologies aimed at improving the quality of life of citizens of the country.

The VI International Scientific Forum “Step into the Future” at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics became one of the platforms for discussing the new national project “Data Economy” and was devoted to the development of the country’s human resources potential and the formation of an advanced economy – the data economy. The moderator of the discussion was the Rector of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics Ivan Lobanov.