‘All of the Most Interesting Research Today Happens at the Borders between Different Disciplines’
The Russian Ministry of Education and Science has approved a new nomenclature of specializations in which academic degrees are conferred in Russia. The new list includes 21 new fields, including cognitive science. Maria Falikman, Head of the HSE School of Psychology, discusses the history of cognitive science, its formation at HSE, and its prospects for development.
Between St. Petersburg and Moscow: International Lab Researchers Create a New Theoretical School
In Russia, 2021 was declared the Year of Science and Technology. HSE has always paid special attention to the development of science, and more than 40 international laboratories have played an important role in the development of the university as a world research centre. One of the University’s first such laboratories was theRonald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR), named after its academic supervisor at the time, American sociologist and political scientist Ronald Inglehart. HSE News Service spoke with LCSR Laboratory Head and professor of sociology Eduard Ponarin (HSE – St. Petersburg) about the Laboratory’s work over the past decade.
Artificial Neurons Help Decode Cortical Signals
Russian scientists have proposed a new algorithm for automatic decoding and interpreting the decoder weights, which can be used both in brain-computer interfaces and in fundamental research. The results ofthe study were published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
3D-Modelling Helps Read Ancient Russian Inscriptions of the 12th and 13th Centuries
Using 3D-modelling, researchers of HSE and the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) have restored and deciphered an ancient literary monument of North-Eastern Ancient Rus — inscriptions about the murder of Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky written in 1175–1176 on a wall of the cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The study was published in Slověne = Словѣне. International Journal of Slavic Studies.
Who Maintains Discipline in a Live Cell: Physics Perspective
Italian and Russian researchers confirmed the hypothesis that the self-maintaining order in eukaryotic cells (cells with nuclei) is a result of two spontaneous mechanisms’ collaboration. Similar molecules gather into ‘drops’ on the membrane and then leave it as tiny vesicles enriched by the collected molecules. The paper with the research results was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Lost in Recalculation: How to Estimate the Scale of the Soviet Economy and Its Rate of Growth
Researchers trying to compare economic data of the USSR and capitalist countries face questions of the comprehensiveness, accessibility, and reliability of data on Soviet economic production and growth. At an online seminar hosted by the HSE University International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and its Consequences, Assistant Professor Ilya Voskoboynikov (Faculty of Economic Sciences, HSE University) presented an overview of available approaches to studying the absolute size of the Soviet economy and its growth rates.
‘How to Teach New Generations of Students?’
The final lecture in the course ‘Teach4HSE: Seven Key Principles of Teaching Excellence’ was delivered by Prof. Vadim Radaev, First Vice Rector of HSE University. His talk about modern problems in teaching and their potential solutions was available to anyone interested. This open talk was held online via YouTube and Zoom, with over 400 teachers from different HSE campuses, as well as representatives of other universities, attending the event.
Taming the ‘Black Swan’: Who Will Win the Fight Against the CoronaCrisis
Countries with reserve currencies, sufficient fiscal capacity to implement soft fiscal policies, and access to global capital markets have the best chance of recovering from the coronavirus crisis. The rest may need external assistance. These are the conclusions drawn by Alexei Kireyev, leading IMF economist and visiting professor at HSE University’s School of World Economy.
‘Borders Between Countries Are Becoming Blurred Thanks to Online Communication’
Professor Oleg Melnikov is among the international professors invited to work remotely with HSE University’s students this academic year. He lives in California, runs the Data Science department at a company in Palo Alto, and teaches at Stanford and other universities in the United States. At HSE University he teaches a course on machine learning for the students of the Faculty of Computer Science and the International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF), as well as a university-wide optional course, ‘Machine Learning in Python’. He spoke about his work in an interview with the HSE News Service.
Anatoly Vishnevsky: ‘A Man from the Third Billion’
Anatoly Vishnevsky, HSE Distinguished Professor and Director of the HSE Institute of Demography, died at the age of 85. Levada Centre Director Lev Gudkov, writer Denis Dragunsky, and film maker Andrey Smirnov describe Vishnevsky’s contributions to demography and social history in a film by the HSE School of Art and Design.