Hello, fellow science enthusiasts and researchers 🧪🧬

We are thrilled to invite you to BIOCON 2023, an international industrial biotechnology conference, organized by ITMO’s Faculty of Biotechnologies.

📅 Save the date: December 18-20, 2023
📍 Location: Almetyevsk, Republic of Tatarstan

BIOCON is a prestigious international conference that brings together leading experts, researchers, and students from the field of biotechnology. This year’s event promises to be a remarkable experience, featuring groundbreaking research, insightful discussions, and opportunities for networking with peers from around the world.

📚 Program highlights:

• Keynote presentations by renowned scientists
• Interactive workshops and poster sessions
• Engaging panel discussions
• Exhibitions showcasing innovative biotechnological solutions
• Networking opportunities for collaboration

🔗 For more details and registration, visit the official BIOCON website.

Let’s come together to celebrate the wonders of biotechnology and drive innovation in this dynamic field. We look forward to seeing you at BIOCON!

Spread the word and tag your friends and colleagues who might be interested! 📣

#opportunities

Six AI tools to help you with studying 🤓

When homework starts feeling overwhelming, remember you don’t have to do it all alone! Here is a list of virtual assistants that will make you more effective:

📝 Working with texts

• Notion AI can summarize a textbook chapter, identify its key points, and use them to make a presentation or graph on the topic, as well as generate a test to check your knowledge — all in a split second.

• ChatPDF works with PDF files – textbooks, articles, books, or any other documents. The tool analyzes the entire text and then uses it as a database for your queries.

• ChatGPT (you can use a Telegram bot for access) can become your digital assistant, as it can instantaneously find information about anything – thanks to the massive amount of information in its database.

🎧 Transcribing audio

• Whisper JAX is the most powerful audio transcribing service to date. Just paste a link to a YouTube video or upload a video/audio file – and get its full transcription.

📊 Making presentations or videos

• Smartest Learning analyzes texts and uses them to create illustrated presentations, quizzes, and tests.

• Synthesys generates educational videos from texts. Simply upload a script and the algorithm will turn it into audio and video using prerecorded material by human voice-over artists.

🤲 Getting assistance from someone more experienced

At ITMO, staff and students can seek help from mentors, adapters, advisers, or Buddies. Find out more about such opportunities in this article.

#studentlife

Dreaming of studying in Russia? Did you know you can do it for free? ✈️

There is a number of opportunities available for international students who wish to study in Russia, especially at ITMO. Check out these scholarships:

▶️ Russian Government Scholarship
👨‍🎓 Who can apply: students enrolling in Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD programs
📚 Subjects offered:
❗️ Deadline to submit the application: November 1, 2023

▶️ Open Doors Scholarship
👨‍🎓 Who can apply: students enrolling in Master’s and PhD programs.
📚 Subjects offered
❗️ Deadline to submit your portfolio: December 10, 2023

#studyatitmo

Meet Elvis, an international student at ITMO who has spent over five years in St. Petersburg. With his vast experience of living abroad, this interview is, without a doubt, an interesting read!

“I have been to many historic cities, but right now St. Petersburg is the one that I love the most,” says Elvis.

Read on to learn some invaluable tips on how to keep yourself warm during winter.

P.S. Elvis has also founded a student club that helps new international students get accustomed to the city. Learn more!

#itmofaces

Come drizzle or downpour, there will be something to do in St. Pete 🌩

Here’s your agenda for the days ahead:

🎥 32 Sounds

A hit from last year’s Sundance Film Festival is on display at Angleterre cinema. The movie explores the sound’s effect on humans and its ability to make us feel, imagine, or remember.
• Oct 5 | 7 pm | 350 rubles

🎷 Golden Melodies of Jazz

The sounds of the world’s classic jazz hits intermingled with contemporary variations, performed intimately in the St. Petersburg Philharmonia.
• Oct 6 | 7 pm | from 500 rubles

💎 Mineralfest

A festival devoted entirely to minerals. Visitors will get to see and touch unusual minerals, and fossils, as well as peruse the items made from them.
• Oct 7 | 12-8 pm | Free

🧪 Audiovisual performances at Art & Science Center

As part of the festival Friends of St. Petersburg, the center hosts three performances created by the program’s students and graduates.
• Oct 8 | 6-8 pm | Free

Check out our guide for more events to attend next week.
#weekends

October 5 is World Teacher’s Day 👩‍🏫

On this special day, let us take a moment to appreciate all the teachers who have made a positive impact on our lives. Thank you for your hard work of sharing knowledge, navigating us through challenges, and radiating with energy even during the earliest class on the schedule 😴

Happy Teachers’ Day!

The Nobel Prize 2023 winners have been announced! And we obsessed! Let’s try to understand the projects that won this highly prestigious award 🌟

🌌 Physics
Congratulations to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier for producing short pulses of light that make it possible to see inside atoms and molecules. Dmitry Karlovets, a senior researcher at ITMO’s School of Physics and Engineering, explains what it is all about.

🔬 Chemistry
Huge shoutout to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, and Alexei Ekimov who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery and study of quantum dots. We turned to the chemistry researchers at ITMO for explanations.

💉 Physiology/Medicine
A big round of applause to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their research that paved the way to mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Ekaterina Skorb, the head of ITMO’s Infochemistry Scientific Center, sheds light on their work.

#newsdigest

This year’s Indian summer is nearing its end 💔🍁

To make this short, colorful period last, you can assemble a herbarium by collecting and drying leaves and plants that will add color to the upcoming dreary winter days. Here’s our tutorial on how to make your collection.

Where to hunt for the perfect specimens? Pause the video randomly to pick one of 16 locations!

#aboutstpete

In Russian, the word “window” has a second meaning familiar to any student – “a lengthy gap between classes” 🚶🏻‍♀️

Put this extra time to good use with our special Steps Away series.

In the newest installment, we arrive to Vasilyevsky Island to explore locations within walking distance from the Birzhevaya Liniya campus. Join us for:

🌊 an apartment-museum in the attic
🏛 the city’s most fascinating architectural ensemble
👓 a public space in the former Optical Institute
🌳 a hidden botanical garden
🦴 a museum with a blue whale skeleton

#studentlife

Meet Pham Dang Trung Nghia from Vietnam, a first-year Bachelor’s student of software engineering at ITMO. In this interview, he shares a lot about his country, Vietnam, and its beautiful culture.

When asked about the reason why he decided to pursue IT, he said: “It is considered a pillar of the digital economy. IT plays an important role in driving technological advancement and the way we work, communicate, and solve problems.”

Read on to learn more about Nghia’s academic pursuits, hobbies, and plans for the future.

#itmofaces

One aspect of adapting to a new culture is learning how to navigate local names. How well do you know Russian ones? Take our quiz to find out 📇