A unified AI course for Russian universities has been prepared

Starting from the new academic year, Russian universities will introduce an updated training module on artificial intelligence into their programs. The Ministry of Education and Science sent a prototype of the course program to representatives of universities. In addition to students of specialized specialties, it should also be taught for “specialists in key sectors of the economy and the social sphere, state and municipal government.” Leading technical universities, whose representatives Kommersant asked to comment on the undertaking, said that such educational programs have been implemented for a long time.

In the new academic year, an updated course “Artificial Intelligence Systems” will appear in Russian universities. It was created by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation together with the Alliance in the field of artificial intelligence (the association brings together leading technology companies such as Sberbank, Yandex, Uralchem ​​and others to develop competencies and accelerate the introduction of artificial intelligence). The prototype of the educational module is published on the portal of federal state educational standards of higher education.

Recall that in November 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the Journey to the World of Artificial Intelligence conference organized by Sberbank, following which he signed a list of instructions for the development of AI in Russia for 2023. The document, in particular, obliges the government of the Russian Federation to “ensure the introduction of changes in educational programs of higher education and advanced training programs aimed at increasing the level of competencies in the field of artificial intelligence of specialists in key sectors of the economy and the social sphere, specialists in state and municipal administration.”

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation told Kommersant that the course was created “to provide universities with methodological support for the educational process and update educational programs in accordance with the latest trends in the field of artificial intelligence.” You can introduce the module into programs of different levels from September 1. The department clarified that “universities themselves develop educational programs and form a curriculum,” therefore, the decision to include a module in a particular course of study will be made by universities themselves.

The work program of the module includes “Fundamentals of Python Programming”, “Mathematical Analysis”, “Linear Algebra” and “Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics”. The program is divided into three levels – basic, advanced and expert (depending on the direction of training).

Director of the Institute of Intelligent Cybernetic Systems of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI Valentin Klimov explained to Kommersant that the developed course is “a simplified unified representation of AI that would suit the maximum number of universities.” The expert believes that the main goal of the authors of the module was “to increase coverage and implement it in as many universities as possible.” The rector of MPEI Nikolai Rogalev is of the same opinion. He also noted that universities should select programs based on the requests of employers. Mr. Rogalev is confident that only in partnership with business representatives will it be possible to understand which specialists need such skills.

Alexander Shiryaev, Deputy Director for Educational Work at the Phystech School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics at MIPT, told Kommersant that module disciplines are taught at the university not only for specialized specialists, but also within the framework of the so-called digital department for other students. Evgeny Sokolov, Head of the HSE Big Data and Information Retrieval Department, says that “absolutely all undergraduate students now study digital literacy, programming, and data analysis.” According to him, the courses are designed for each program: “Historians are more likely to learn how to write small Python scripts and process tabular data with them, while computer science students study machine learning and deep learning.” After the publication of a single educational module at the university, Mr. Sokolov added, they thought about combining programs into a separate block.

Polina Yachmennikova