ETU "LETI" defined artificial intelligence as one of the priority R&D areas for university science and education.
The goal is to achieve world leadership in fundamental and applied research in the field of AI and create a university-based global competence center for the development and application of AI-based solutions in the industry.
The ETU "LETI" research agenda includes mathematical foundations for the development of strong AI, hardware solutions for AI, ethics and safety of the AI application, use of AI for cybersecurity, autonomous transport systems, spatial AI, distributed AI, Big Data analytics, machine learning, ontological modeling and the semantic web.
AI as a research area has been developing at ETU "LETI" for over 40 years. In the 1970-1990s, the main research spheres included threshold logic, neural elements, the collective behavior of automated machines, the use of AI systems in computer-aided design, pattern and signal recognition.
In 1991, ETU "LETI" established the Institute for Simulation and Intelligentization of Complex Systems, which carried out fundamental and applied research. In the 1990-2000s, university scientists researched intelligent self-recovery systems based on fuzzy models, neural networks in control. Companies in industry and banking adopted encryption-based software developed by university researchers.
At present, ETU "LETI" has strong ties with the Boston Global Forum and the AI World Society that allow the university to integrate into the global research environment of today.
In July 2019, the university established the Alexander Popov Innovation Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Communications. Together with the Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (Boston, USA), ETU "LETI" conducts research, implements educational programs, and organizes academic events in the field of AI. The aim of the cooperation is to create new intelligent technologies and innovations to solve the global problems of humanity.
Since 2020, ETU "LETI" hosts seasonal schools on Industrial Software Engineering for Robotics and the Internet of Things for international students. The program includes studying mathematics, electrical engineering, Robot Operating System, the basics of programming in Python and computer vision, solving a practical task on the Duckietown platform.
In the 2020/2021 academic year, ETU "LETI" will start training at the elite international master's program on Mathematics and Software of Artificial Intelligence Systems. The online master's program held jointly with MIT, Northeastern University, and Harvard University will include fellowships for teachers and student exchange, student participation in AIWS Young Leaders and AIWS Innovation Network.
Victories in international competitions prove the university's high competitiveness in the field of AI. In 2019, Konstantin Chaika, a postgraduate student of the Department of Software Engineering and Computer Applications, was a two-time winner of AI Driving Olympics, the international championship in the application of AI for self-driving cars, as part of a joint Russian team JBRRussia. Kirill Krinkin, Head of the Department of Software Engineering and Computer Applications, trained the team for the competition.
ETU "LETI" researchers develop their projects in laboratories of algorithmic mathematics, neuromorphic calculations and technologies, autonomous transport systems, ethics and safety of AI, distributed AI and communications, machine learning and application of AI, intelligent technologies in education, data analytics, as well as student laboratory of operating systems. The university launched the polygon based on the Duckietown project for research in the field of autonomous vehicles.
In the field of fundamental and applied research, ETU "LETI" cooperates with Lomonosov Moscow State University, RAS St. Petersburg Department of the Steklov Mathematical Institute, St. Petersburg State University, RAS Bekhtereva Institute of the Human Brain, RAS Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Almazov National Medical Research Center.
Industrial partners of the university are Sberbank, Gazprom Neft, Russian Railways, Inter RAO, Oceanpribor Concern, Inteltech, Milandr, and JetBrains Research.
Among foreign partners of ETU "LETI" are Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (both the USA), the University of Lille (France), the University of Waterloo, the University of Montreal (both - Canada), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), the University of Leicester, the University of Salford (both the UK), the University of Haifa (Israel).
