HSE Student at IBM Best Student Recognition Event

In July, IBM brought 70 of the best students from across Europe to Prague for the annual IBM Best Student Recognition Event. Representing the Higher School of Economics at the forum was Alexei Khokhlov, a graduate of the Faculty of Business Informatics and a Master’s student in the E-business programme.

The IBM Best Student Recognition Event has taken place every year in the company’s offices across Europe since 2008, and in 2014, it was the Czech capital’s turn to host the event. As Irina Lesovskaya, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Business Informatics, noted, IBM invites students to the forum who are considered the best in the field of IT studies at institutes with a proven record of quality education. Russian institutions that are able to send students to the forum are the Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and the Higher School of Economics. Khokhlov was the fourth person to represent the HSE at these events.

‘The schedule included three days of work,’ said Khokhlov. ‘The first two were primarily filled with presentations by IBM representatives. There was a wide range of topics that included everything from a presentation of global IT trends to a speech by the financial director of IBM’s Czech division on the nature of financial divisions’ operation given the growing role for IT in business.’

Significant attention was devoted to projects that the company is heading up around the world. ‘We were shown the possibilities of IBM’s recent developments in the area of cloud technologies, Big Data analysis, and the IBM Watson supercomputer with artificial intelligence that is used to diagnose and treat cancer,’ said Khokhlov. ‘But the main emphasis was on the Smarter Planet concept in which IBM is collaborating with ministries and local governments in a number of countries, implementing the latest technologies to manage city transport, hospitals, security and other fields.’ The forum’s second day also saw students participate in seminars like the ‘soft skills workshop’ where they could ‘accumulate’ knowledge on teamwork, presentation skills and start-up formation.

The last day of the forum was devoted entirely to the IBM Idea Camp, with students ‘working in a factory’ of new ideas and technologies. Attendees were divided into 12 teams of 5-6 individuals and were offered the chance to think of innovative solutions for such areas as health care, education, transport, commerce, and state governance.

‘It turns out that several solutions presented by us already exist, and several nearly coincide with technologies that are currently being developed at the company. However, several completely new and innovative ideas were proposed for urban development, heath care, and marketing departments of large companies,’ said Khokhlov.