‘Joint Projects Between Universities and Businesses Are Very Important’

The Russian Summer School, Masterchain, was held at the Higher School of Economics. It provided students with experience in working with this platform beyond the sphere of banking. The students collaborated on innovative projects for solving real business problems in the field of FinTech.

The Masterchain Summer School took place at MIEM and was organized by the Faculty of Computer Science at HSE in cooperation with IPE Laboratory, the non-profit organization, Digital Planet, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Sirius Center for Gifted Education and the FinTech Association. According to the organizers, one of the goals of the school is to form teams which are capable of working together on a technological project (both proprietary and custom) and prototyping MVP (a minimally viable product).

‘As the modern world continues to develop, there is a contradiction between technologies and the products created by these technologies,’ said Evgenii Krouk, Director of MIEM, at the opening of the summer school. ‘Technologies last for three to five years; the products last for much longer. Future specialists need to master the current technological innovations and have a systemic view of development. Universities, although they cannot keep up with all the innovations, provide this systemic view. Business, for its part, allows one to master the technologies most in demand today. Therefore, projects such as the Masterchain Summer School, which involve cooperation between universities and businesses, are very important.’

Summer school participants had the rare opportunity to work with the Masterchain platform, which has been launched for the first time outside the field of banking, namely in computer classes at MIEM. They also studied the use of Masterchain in digital services, applying it to real cases and sharing their ideas with leading experts in the field of blockchain technologies.

‘It's nice to see that our students understand the importance of practical knowledge and entrepreneurial skills and that they strive to make the most of the opportunities that this school gives them,’ said Director of the Summer School and Head of the Department of Software Engineering at the Faculty of Computer Science at HSE, Sergey Avdoshin.

‘Technologies have changed client preferences, and today, business is grouped around the client, and not around the service, as it once was,’ said Alisa Melnikova, the Director of the Financial Technology, Projects and Process Management Department of the Central Bank of Russia.

‘Today’s students will have to solve tomorrow’s problems, and we don’t even know what they are yet’, she went on. ‘However, all of these tasks will be at the intersection of the disciplines. Therefore, students should prioritize doing practical courses. Practical experience is exactly what will be needed to solve interesting problems in the future. Don’t get hung up on the question ‘Who will I be in five years’ time?’, as the answer is bound to change. Rather, you need to expand your horizons, learn new things, and then, in five years’ time, you will be competent specialists who are very much in demand.’

57 students from various Russian universities and study programmes,including areas outside of finance, attended the Summer School

Daria Shatko (Skoltech)

I study physics and solve a lot of problems with programming. I realized that I do not want to pursue an academic career – I find business analytics much more interesting and I'm looking for an opportunity to get involved in an interesting IT project. Of course, it’s impossible to enter an IT company without knowledge of modern languages ​​and programming methods. I’ve got a certain amount of experience in blockchain projects and I want to know more about the principles of creating such platforms. And you can’t learn this from the Internet. The Summer School can provide me with cutting edge information from experts in the field and perhaps even the opportunity to network with new partners and employers.

Marina Stepanova (HSE)

I have already participated in similar events and I find it all very interesting. I appreciate the focus on practice at this particular summer school. It helps me to understand whether I want to pursue a career in blockchain and in which areas I want to develop my skills.