In October 2024, the Department of Digital and Additive Technologies (DAT) of the University of Industrial Technologies and Design celebrated its 10th anniversary. During two weeks the department held festive events: a scientific and technological conference “Digital Transformation: yesterday, today, tomorrow”, a hackathon “The Power of AI - a website in a day”, a meeting of the department's alumni, a festive meeting of the department and an exhibition “Created by neural network and graduates of DAT”.
The festive events started with the opening of the conference by the head of the department Anton Soshnikov and presentation of the results of activities for 10 years of work. He presented to the guests the statistics of the department's work in figures:
- 1133 students are trained at the department in all areas of training and forms of education (bachelor's degree - 946 people, master's degree - 120 people, secondary professional training - 67 people);
- 5 bachelor profiles: applied informatics in design, digital technologies in finance, IT-technologies of digital content creation, IT-solutions and provision of analytical business processes, IT-solutions and provision of business processes;
- 3 Master's degree profiles: applied informatics in design, digital design of industrial objects, digital technologies in high-tech fashion industry (FashionTech);
- 1 specialization of vocational education: information systems and programming;
- teaching staff: 7 candidates of technical sciences, 7 members of the creative union, 1 candidate of architecture, 1 candidate of art history;
- 5 professional retraining programs within the framework of the project “Digital Department”: algorithmic and programming in Python language, basics of building intelligent agents, three-dimensional modeling and additive technologies, visualization of brand representation, web-design.
Today the Department of Digital and Additive Technologies of Ƶ conducts research in the field of artificial intelligence, digital fashion, virtual and augmented reality, digitalization of business processes, content of digital resources, three-dimensional modeling, GameDev, UX/UI design, multimedia, branding and corporate identity, website development.
With the anniversary of the staff and students of the department congratulated the first vice-rector, vice-rector for academic work Alexander Rudin, director of the Institute of Information Technology and Automation Alexei Markovets, vice-rector for financial activities Irina Abramova, director of the Institute of Design of Spatial Environment Julia Vetrova, director of the Institute of Costume Design Peter Gamayunov, director of the Institute of Design and Art Svetlana Vankovich.
The conference reports were divided into 5 directions: applied design, web-technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics, additive technologies. 155 applications from students and staff of the department were submitted for participation in the conference, the most popular topic was applied design. In this area much attention was paid to corporate identity, branding, interface and content. The topic of content and interfaces in general came to the forefront, focusing on their optimization, efficiency, interactivity and use in a variety of fields. Topics on the application of digital technology in the theater field were covered, with an excursion into the past of design in areas such as photography and game design. Reports related to the application of artificial intelligence in image generation, interface design, web development and information security are gaining popularity.
In parallel, a hackathon, also dedicated to the topic of artificial intelligence, was held on the site of the SmartDesign laboratory of SPbSUPTD. The competition was attended by 7 teams of students from the department of CAT, who took on the roles of programmer, designer and leader. The teams had the task to develop a website in 24 hours with maximum use of AI and demonstrate it to the experts. A special feature of the hackathon was the opportunity for students to consult with programming and design experts during pitch sessions included in the program of the event.
The participants developed not just a website, as the task required, but full-fledged information systems, such as a website-library of useful materials for zoomers or a Telegram bot that tells you when to buy or sell cryptocurrency.
The students' works were evaluated by Nikolay Berkutov, head of software development projects at WaveAccess, German Bakhov, CEO of Belka marketing agency, Andrey Kostyuk, CEO of Brandy studio, and Asya Akinshina, founder of ASYA AKINSHINA DSGN brand.
According to the results of the evaluations, the winner was the project “Ethical Dilemma” - a computer strategy game about the head of a company who fires, hires, and applies various sanctions to employees in an effort to keep his company on the market for as long as possible, from the team “Dejiki” (Alina Baidukova, Yaroslav Lashchev, Fedor Khavalits).
Also, as part of the anniversary celebration, the department's first alumni reunion evening was held. Among the former students are many executives from well-known companies: Alexandra Gorshkova, head of business analysis at Nedra Digital, an engineering company with an innovative approach to digitalization of the oil and gas industry; Denis Menshakov, head of DM digital, a full-service marketing agency; Yulia First from the cloud products and services provider SRE team lead at RingCentral; Egor Makarychev from the startup GameDev AI Marketing Agency; and Ekaterina Golubeva, graphic designer-illustrator at BIA Technologies, a business integrator that develops IT products and services. Maxim Sobolev, a 2004 graduate, who received a job offer after the open defense of his graduation projects, now works as a developer at Gazprom Inform LLC, and Karina Gafarova, while still a student, thanks to the expert support of the department, became a winner of the contest “I am a Professional” in the direction of “Art-Direction” three times, as well as a scholarship holder of the Government of St. Petersburg. The meeting was held in a cozy, family atmosphere.
A festive meeting of the department and presentation of the exhibition with fragments of books about fairy-tale characters generated by the students of the department in the windows of the SmartDesign laboratory completed the series of solemn events. The exhibition was designed by Pavel Kuchev, a student of the department in the direction of “IT-technologies of digital content creation”.
It should be noted that this year the rebranding of the corporate identity of the department and the whole Institute of Information Technologies and Automation of Ƶ took place within the framework of the contest “Our Institute”.
Egor Usov, Alexey Petrushin, Daniil Zykov, Ksenia Aksenova, Nikita Olshanov, Yulia Cherneikina, Daria Troitskaya, Ilya Burashnikov worked on the project. In the project the students were able to unite technological and creative directions of the department's work, as well as to create a design for new tasks, plans and horizons, forming the image of a young and purposeful department.