Master's program at the Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences: sharing experience

The Department of Mathematical and Information Technologies of the St. Petersburg Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences was established in 2008. This year she is 5 years old. It is time to take intermediate results and share experiences with the community.

We have already written about this several times in Habré. But before we were limited to dry ads.

Why did we decide to open the department?

In most universities, graduate education takes place in a relaxed atmosphere: there are few courses, they are “free”, and all students are already working. It turns out that for those who, by the fifth year of school, retained the desire to study, the magistracy is two lost years. Our goal was to create a magistracy with a strong program in which there would be no “extra” courses.
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How did it all begin?

In 2008, the Department of Mathematical and Information Technologies was established on the basis of the Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences (then it was called the Academic Physical-Technical University of the Russian Academy of Sciences). At that time there were physical departments in the Academic University. Therefore, education in our department, we had to create "from scratch." But you can’t just open a master’s degree in IT =), because you need to find a few dozen teachers who are ready to give courses. Therefore, our department was created in collaboration with the Academy of Modern Programming and the Laboratory of Mathematical Logic of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Mathematical Institute. V.A. Steklov RAS , thanks to which we were able to form an educational program and fill it with courses.

We immediately divided the first set (~ 15 people) into two areas: “software engineering” (software engineering) and “theoretical computer science” (theoretical computer science). It was assumed that students in the “software development” direction plan to work in the IT industry, while students in “theoretical computer science” are focused on work in science. It naturally happened that mostly students chose an applied direction, and only those who were confident that they wanted to continue to study science went to the theoretical.

What do we have now?

Now about 70 people study at the department at the same time. Our Master offers intensive training programs in three areas. In the fifth year, this can be up to 16 couples per week - these are four full days of training from 10 to 6, not counting individual practice (R & D), which is set aside for a separate day in the schedule. As I have already written, we have three areas at the department - the direction “Algorithms and Data Analysis in Bioinformatics” was added. For 5 years, we managed not only to change the name of the university and get the title of "research", but also to create a laboratory of algorithmic bioinformatics under the guidance of Professor of the University of California Paul Pevzner.
Now about each direction separately.

Specialization "theoretical informatics"
The “Theoretical Informatics” program, unique in its kind, is led by a well-known scientist in the field of algorithms and complexity theory, the founder of the Computer Science in Russia conference series, the ideologist of the Computer Science club at POMI RAS , doctor of physical and mathematical sciences E.A. Hirsch
Students in this field systematically and deeply study algorithms, cryptography, machine learning, and complexity theory. Training is complemented by special courses of Computer Science Club and trips to student schools.

The basis of this direction are independent scientific studies of students under the guidance of specialists in theoretical computer science. A typical master's thesis is an article accepted at an international conference.

Specialization "software development"
The training program "Software Development" is designed for students who already have some knowledge in the field of programming, but who want to become popular professionals who are ready to work in any world-class IT company. The training program is based on modern international standards based on the results of consultations with representatives of the largest IT companies whose employees are also involved in teaching.

Each student is required to participate in the development of a software project under the guidance of a teacher or consultant from industry. Many student projects are carried out within the framework of a real production process, and often in the territory of a partner company. In fact, the project model of education, as it is implemented in the AU, allows students to feel at the exit from the university that they are specialists with experience in highly organized IT teams that partner companies have .

Specialization "algorithmic bioinformatics"
The specialized master program "algorithmic bioinformatics" is open at the laboratory of algorithmic biology , headed by Professor of the University of California Pavel Pevzner .

The training includes in-depth courses on algorithms and data structures used to analyze large data arrays, which are obtained using modern biotechnological methods. Training also includes programming, discrete mathematics, basic molecular biology, statistics, machine learning, and other more specialized subjects.

As a scientific work, students under the guidance of laboratory staff take part in solving real bioinformatics problems. These include the development of algorithms and software systems for assembling genomic sequences (de novo genome sequence assembly), as well as theoretical and practical tasks in the field of computational proteomics and mass spectrometry. The program is designed to produce high-quality specialists in algorithmic questions of bioinformatics that are in demand both in science and in industry.

What else can interest students who want to learn?

I will try to briefly list all that we have been able to achieve:

Training is free
If a student has the right to study for free , then he studies with us for free. For other students, the pay is quite symbolic.

Individual approach
All training questions can be solved quickly individually. For this, students have curators whom they can contact at any time.

Flexible program
The program includes elective courses. The student may also, in agreement with the supervisor, replace any course in his program (if, for example, he has already listened to it).

Cooperation with companies
The department actively cooperates with some large Russian IT companies (the list is on the site ). IT companies offer projects for student practices and theses, company employees speak at seminars and conduct specialized courses. Thanks to the support of companies, we have the opportunity to pay students increased scholarships and help them with trips to student schools and conferences.

Teachers
We try to attract teachers with relevant knowledge. The majority of software development courses are read by employees of the largest IT companies, mathematics courses are read by employees of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and courses on bioinformatics are given by employees of the laboratory of algorithmic bioinformatics.

Focus on practice
Each student has a head of practice - an engineer or a scientist, depending on the direction that oversees his research work (R & D). In addition, for the “software development” direction, the hackathons “Developer Days” are held every semester - groups of 3-4 people develop different applications from scratch for several days.

Feedback
We respect the views of students. To this end, we constantly conduct surveys, the results of which allow us to quickly solve emerging problems.

Minuses

I will try to describe the problems that we have.

Oversaturated program
Two years is a very short time to have time to teach something meaningful. Therefore, we really have a lot of courses. The main problem of students is the lack of time. We, of course, warn about this when taking to the department, but not everyone can correctly calculate their strength.

Much we deduct
As a result of the previous problem, unfortunately, quite a lot of students are expelled. Some leave themselves, unable to cope with the load. Some have to deduct for academic failure. Diploma protection usually reaches no more than 60%.

Bachelor courses
We have to read some undergraduate courses (for example, basic courses of algorithms and combinatorics). We would be happy to leave only the master’s level courses, but we recruit students from all over Russia (more than half of our students are not from St. Petersburg), they teach differently everywhere, and often they teach poorly (including in St. Petersburg). Therefore, we have to "pull up" the overall level.

Work can not be combined with studies
This is a controversial flaw. In a normal situation, it should be. However, in our realities, it is difficult for a student to live on a scholarship. We, in turn, try to encourage students in every way: increased scholarships are paid, trips to schools and conferences are paid.

Successes

A measure of the success of any educational institution, of course, is the success of its students. It seems to be with us is not bad. In short, it can be described something like this: who wanted to work as a programmer — works, who wanted to enroll in graduate school — did, who wanted to go abroad — left.

In addition, you can read the posts of our students in Habré:
the story about learning in the direction of "theoretical informatics"
a story about training in the direction of "software development" ,
a story about learning in the direction of "algorithmic bioinformatics" .

This year we have added another couple of reasons for pride by our students:

• The team of our department went to the final of the World Programming Championship ,
• The team of our department took the third place in the Intel competition .

Arrival

On admission we also try to avoid bureaucracy. The form is filled on the site. After that, after a while, the student is invited to online testing. After successfully passing the test, the student is invited for an interview. A couple of weeks after the interview, we report the result.

Questions

The following questions we could not find a good answer.

1. How to solve the problem with the need to read basic courses?
   We have not invented anything adequate except opening our own bachelor degree.
   
2. How to attract strong students?
   We believe that strong students are interested in a strong program and a lot of practice. Maybe we are missing something?
   
3. What areas of study would interest you?
   We have three areas that cover a fairly wide audience. What is left behind?
   
4. How to advertise IT education?
   This question has been worrying for a long time. Most of the advertising of universities "in real" (for example, in the subway) causes, to put it mildly, negative feelings. Where to advertise on the net? This year we will try contextual advertising in social networks. Where else? Last year, as an experiment, they made a video like this.
   
   Where to hang it?
   

Thanks for attention. I will be glad to answer any questions, listen to suggestions and comments. If you are an IT master somewhere else, I will be glad to hear about your experience.