Intelligent Computer Technologies at the “Picnic” Festival

During the youth festival of creativity in science and technology “Picnic at the Polytechnic University” the Graduate School of Engineering and the Department of Intelligent Computer Technologies from the Institute of Computer Science and Technology (ICST) demonstrated cutting-edge computer technologies and modern programs of education.

At the “Picnic” departments presented their projects and workshops at three separate stands. The Graduate School of Engineering (GSE) showed the achievements of the International Research and Education Center “Autodesk – Polytechnic”, its affiliate. Anna Brousek, a lecturer of GSE explained how the programs of education and certification for Autodesk products are being implemented via the directions “Computer Design”, “Web Technologies Development” and the majors of the Information Technologies Academy for Schoolchildren.

During the workshop called “Creating a 3D interior from scratch” organized by Maksim Shubin the participants of the “Picnic” learnt how one can create interiors with the help of AutoCAD and 3ds Max programs.

The headliner of GSE workshops was Evgeniya Tukevich, Director of the Center “Autodesk-Polytechnic”, head of the Master programs “Computer Design” and “Web Technologies Development” at GSE, a Photoshop and Illustrator certified instructor, as well as the author of popular self-study books on Adobe products. Evgeniya Ivanovna told the participants of the “Picnic” about a new algorhythm of fast photo retouching in Adobe Photoshop.

The Information Technologies Academy for Schoolchildren (ITAS) presented another stand on behalf of the Graduate School of Engineering. Numerous visitors learnt about educational programs for schoolchildren, which have been successfully carried out at ITAS for 10 years. Everyone could try their hand at robotics right at the stand. There were quite a lot of visitors wishing to program a Lego robot to perform certain operations. Those who were waiting in the queue were offered amusing, but not easy tests to define their level of IT culture and provide career advice.

The third stand was prepared by the Department of Intelligent Computer Technologies” (ICT). It was really popular with the visitors. It was easy to understand this interest because it was possible not only to see some developments by the students of the department, but also to talk to the developers in person. Among the most interesting programs are: “Keyboard handwriting” is the system for identifying a user remotely according to keyboard input (this is especially significant due to the development of distance learning); the project “Analysis of Student Answers in Natural Language” allowing an intelligent semantic analysis of answers in a test system mode; the project “Music and Statistics” can help to identify the music genre of a certain piece of music on the basis of a mathematical approach.

The representatives of the Graduate School of Engineering reported a substantial interest of the students in master and postgraduate educational programs offered by ICT. At the ICT department stand practically no one could help playing domino with one of the algorithms, former winners of a cyber competition for first-year students that has been held for 7 years.

A.V. Shchukin, Deputy Head of ICT Department, took an active part in the festival. He presented a report called “Mass Online Studying: from Stereotypes to Innovation”. This report corresponded to the overall atmosphere of the festival, since openness, innovation and new educational technologies are an inherent part of our University policy.

Brought to you by the Graduate School of Engineering