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This year, International Summer University is held online for the second time. Eight courses in a variety of disciplines will run from June 20 to August 20. The summer programme brings together students from all over the world, including China, Italy, India, Norway, and other countries. The most popular courses include Politics and Economics of Energy, Challenges to EU-Russia Economic Links and Russian as a Foreign Language. Registration is still open for several courses starting in July.

The joint Master's programme of the Garage Museum and HSE University, ‘Curatorial Practices in Contemporary Art’, started in autumn 2019. Two years later, exhibitions prepared by student teams over the course of their studies are opening in Moscow. The first of them, ‘Comfort  and Reason. Fragments of Artistic Life in Moscow in the 90s', is now on display at the Museum of Moscow.

Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer of Times Higher Education, and Yaroslav Kuzminov, HSE University Rector, delivered opening remarks.

On June 10^th, the Cultural Centre hosted the open final of the HSE Startup Cup competition held by the HSE Business Incubator. First place in the ‘Idea’ category went to a project by 13-year-old Daniil Khachaturov to adapt educational web resources for blind and visually impaired people. The student and his mentor, Gulshat Suhanova, lecturer at the Institute of Education of HSE University, spoke with the News Service about his participation in the incubator and his start-up idea.

According to experts of the Digital Environment Law Institute of HSE University, Artificial Intelligence (AI) may soon become a participant of the legal decision-making process, and the AI system will be entrusted with authority. Therefore, the issue of liability for ‘automated decision making’ should be addressed. HSE experts presented a special report that evaluates whether AI designers should be liable for the automated systems they create and what actions the government can take to develop AI investment projects.

Peio Zuazo-Garin, ICEF Assistant Professor and a PhD graduate from the University of the Basque Country, joined HSE University at a time when all the usual formats of research and teaching were disrupted by the pandemic. In an interview he told how to adapt to a new place of work online, what are the pros and cons of academic prestige, why he loves Moscow and why he recalls bullfighting during the discussions with ICEF students.

Professor Alexey Tameev of HSE MIEM, along with a team of colleagues, has proposed a calculation method to determine the optimal photoactive layer thickness which can maximize the power conversion efficiency of solar cells. Applicable for both polymer andperovskite solar cells, the method can become a milestone on the path from laboratory samples to solar cells made from new generation materials. The results of the research are covered in ‘A common optical approach to thickness optimization in polymer and perovskite solar cells’, an article published in Scientific Reports.

From June 22-23, the virtual Times Higher Education Young Universities Summit, jointly organized with HSE University, will take place. This marks the first time that the summit will be conducted with support from a Russian university. The choice of HSE is no coincidence: it is the only Russian university in the Top 50 of THE Young University Ranking.