The rector of the MIPT announced the debate on the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Olympics

Livanov stressed the importance of the emergence of new areas of the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren, which are of key importance for the scientific and technological development of Russia. In his opinion, first of all we should talk about robotics and artificial intelligence.

At the moment there are no such areas, Livanov said, but “decisions are being discussed” to launch Olympiads in these areas starting from the new academic year.

The rector added that around half of the students admitted to the first year of the MIPT university degree were enrolled based on the results of the Olympics. In this sense, he highlighted the importance of its quality.

Livanov highlighted the high level of the All-Russian School Olympiad, but criticized the organizational and methodological level of some university Olympiads, calling it “not high enough.” In his opinion, not all Olympiads offer a high level of training, which is why he proposed assigning them a lower category or not allowing admission to universities for the first year of the bachelor’s degree without entrance exams based on their results.

In December, the Association “Alliance in AI” and the publishing house “Prosveshcheniye” announced that they had published textbooks on artificial intelligence for the fifth to ninth grades of secondary schools. The project was implemented with the participation of more than 30 leading expert professionals from companies that are members of the association: Sberbank, Yandex, MTS AI, Gazprom Neft, T-Bank and others. The scientific editor was Elena Kazakova, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Pedagogy of St. Petersburg State University and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education.