News

In late September, HSE University hosted a roundtable discussion titled Civil Society in African Countries and Youth Participation in Public Diplomacy. Representatives of non-governmental organisations from Ghana, Ethiopia, and Russia, along with students from HSE University’s Bachelor’s Programme in Public Administration, discussed how young people without official diplomatic status can influence relations between countries and how the nonprofit sector can remain sustainable amid declining grant funding.

The Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (HSE MIEM) hosted a talk by Prof. Ana María Cetto titled ‘The First Hundred Quantum Years. What Next?’ The prominent theoretical physicist and contributor to two Nobel Peace Prizes addressed the fundamental problem of the lack of a unified interpretation of quantum theory and the incomplete understanding of its physical foundations. Eduardo Villegas Mejías, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Mexican States to the Russian Federation, attended the event.

Researchers from HSE University’s Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have synthesised the findings of their previous studies on brain development in children with obstetric brachial plexus palsy and arthrogryposis. Their analysis shows that impaired motor function in early childhood not only limits children’s motor experience but also affects memory, categorical thinking, and information processing. The study has been published in Frontiers in Psychology.

Russian universities, with the participation of HSE University, Sber, and Z-union, have developed a neural network that can simultaneously assess the risk of 15 types of pathology from retinal photographs, including not only eye diseases but also cardiovascular conditions. The AI system can help clinicians detect potentially concerning changes at an early stage, identify signs reflecting the condition of retinal blood vessels, and determine whether a patient may need further examination. The paper has been published in Frontiers in Medicine.

The International Laboratory for Supercomputer Atomistic Modelling and Multi-Scale Analysis at HSE University held a major conference on molecular dynamics. Participants had the opportunity to attend all the presentations, while speakers were given as much time as they needed to answer questions. The HSE News Service interviewed Grigory Smirnov, Head of the Laboratory, and Genri Norman, Chief Research Fellow, about the conference preparations and the discussions it generated.

The competition will take place from October 26 to November 1, bringing together students from leading engineering universities and academics from Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. The Games are being held under the coordination of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Roscosmos State Corporation. HSE University is the operator of the International Space Games.

The Fifth International Forum 'Creative Industries in UNESCO Cities' brought together hundreds of specialists from various countries and Russian regions. One of the event venues was HSE University–St Petersburg. Representatives of city government, filmmakers, artists, and international experts met with university professors to discuss the ways in which the creative economy has helped to develop tourism and what role young people have played in it.

In summer 2026, the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) took several steps towards establishing closer ties with leading Chinese universities. The Faculty signed a landmark memorandum with one of China’s top technical universities and also began talks with Peking University. In addition, the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation in Public Administration, affiliated with FSS, held an international summer school in Moscow with the participation of Chinese colleagues.

In mid-September 2026, UNESCO held an online seminar entitled ‘Quantum Science and the Future of Quantum Technologies.’ During a panel discussion, Alexander Sokolov, Director of the International Research and Educational Foresight Centre at the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) and Chair of the UNESCO Chair on Future Studies at HSE University, presented the results of ISSEK’s Quantum Leap foresight study to international experts.

Engineers and researchers at the HSE Institute for Robotics Systems have successfully run the first tests of an AI-powered environmental recognition model deployed on a robot dog. The robot navigated around the HSE Pokrovka building and Pokrovsky Bulvar, analysing the surrounding environment to identify its location.