Youth and science

Spring IT School: "JINR is a place where your ideas
can be brought to life"

On 10 April 2025, the JINR Spring School of Information Technologies concluded at the Meshcheryakov Laboratory of Information Technologies. Throughout two days, students from universities of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus presented the results of their work performed on the topics of JINR research under the supervision of MLIT specialists.

Traditionally, the Spring IT School holds a kind of summing up of the results of the preceding autumn stage. The School’s founder, MLIT Scientific Leader Vladimir Korenkov, reported that 58 students from 11 Russian universities and over 30 lecturers from the JINR Laboratories and other scientific and educational organizations participated in the Autumn IT School, which took place in October 2024. Based on its results, scientific groups, including students, their supervisors from universities and the Institute’s specialists, were formed for joint work on JINR projects. As a result, 33 young specialists from nine universities of Russia and Belarus, who chose JINR activities as the topic of their bachelor’s and master’s theses, presented their investigations at the Spring School.

This time, the scientific directions were divided into six topics: distributed computing in experimental and theoretical research underway at JINR; mathematical modeling and numerical methods; methods and technologies for data processing and analysis; JINR Digital EcoSystem; support and development of the JINR Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex; engineering infrastructure: automation and monitoring.

As Vladimir Korenkov said, a number of interesting reports were delivered at the current School. First of all, he highlighted work on elaborating the architecture of a distributed data storage of various levels and its virtualization. The range of works related to machine learning methods in application to various areas, especially in the field of tracking for NICA, namely, SPD, MPD experiment tasks, event analysis and selection, was noted. Several prominent reports were devoted to mathematical problems, for example, the use of the neural network method to solve complex multidimensional integrals. “Holding the School not only gives the students an opportunity to gain new knowledge, but also provides new experience to our project supervisors, helps them improve in teaching and managing student work,” Vladimir Korenkov underlined. “It is also highly important that during this time we get to know the students well and understand their potential and abilities. It is not enough for us to educate good programmers, we are looking for young scientists. People who are proactive, creative, independent. Those who are capable of not just completing tasks, but searching, pushing through, setting tasks for themselves and looking for ways to solve them. We strive to ensure that the IT School tempers the guys in this regard.”

MLIT Director Sergei Shmatov pointed out that the vast majority of young employees who came to work at MLIT after their graduation theses went through the JINR School of Information Technologies. At the same time, he highlighted that the JINR IT School was a tool for forming a personnel reserve not only for MLIT, but for the entire Institute. “Information technologies are needed in any scientific field and especially for the implementation of our megascience projects, such as NICA. For this reason, staff members from various JINR Laboratories, who, in one way or another, employ information technologies in their work, act as lecturers for the autumn part of the School. Nevertheless, we expect to attract young people to MLIT on a long-term basis. Therefore, our specialists here are not just lecturers, they are people who supervise scientific projects, those who are able to lead the youth,” MLIT Director said.

Certificates for the participants and diplomas for the winners of the report competition at the closing of the Spring IT School were presented by JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov and JINR Vice-Director Latchesar Kostov. JINR Scientific Leader Victor Matveev highly appreciated the large volume of work done by the students and their scientific supervisors.

“MLIT is able to create a unique working atmosphere in which scientists, specialists, students are all interested in communicating with each other and implementing projects, and even defending the work is a source of enthusiasm and courage,” Grigory Trubnikov noted, congratulating the participants on completing the School. “The School is beneficial both to our Institute and to the students’ home scientific organizations. Thanks to it, there appear qualified specialists with serious work, the results of which, programs, developments, algorithms, if not today, then tomorrow, and some have already been applied in real scientific projects.”

“Communication with young people is highly important for mentors, since it is a source of creative energy and new ideas required for scientific investigations,” Latchesar Kostov commented on the School.

All participants of the JINR Spring School of Information Technologies received interesting questions, useful recommendations and comments on their reports from the members of the jury, which comprised experts from MLIT and leading Russian scientific organizations.

Following the Spring School, the winners of the best report competition were announced: Yulia Dranevich, Artem Belii, Grigory Shipunov (Dubna State University), Lev Simbiryatin, Polina Korshunova (National Research Nuclear University MEPhI), Evgeny Ibatullin (Saint Petersburg State University), Savely Omelyanchuk (Dubna branch of Moscow State University). More details about the works can be found on the School website. These students got the opportunity to present their works this summer at the international conference “Distributed Computing and Grid Technologies in Science and Education” (GRID’2025).

IT School’s Scientific Secretary, MLIT Researcher Daria Priakhina pointed out that the JINR School of Information Technologies was actively developing: “The School’s geography is expanding. We are glad that Belarus has joined this year, and we plan to continue working in the direction of other countries. The subject coverage is growing, the students’ reports have become more profound and elaborate. And it is highly important for us that all the Laboratories of the Institute are involved in setting tasks for the students of the JINR IT School. Since, at present, tasks related to information technologies exist in absolutely any scientific field.”

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Several winners of the report competition shared their impressions of participating in the IT School.

“I learned about this IT School from my supervisor, who introduced JINR as a place where I can bring my ideas to life. My work is related to the development of a virtualized distributed data storage. My supervisor was Alexander Nikolaevich Moibenko, a specialist in this field. I wanted to elaborate my idea. When the opportunity arose to present my work at the conference, I realized that this was a chance to convey my idea to people and receive criticism from top-notch specialists. Now, after the presentation, I understand that this is also a great opportunity to grow personally. This is what I consider the most significant in research work. In the future, I am interested in continuing my work in the master’s program and am actively considering areas at my university, as well as at the MSU branch in Dubna, which cooperates with MLIT,” Evgeny Ibatullin, a fourth-year student at SPbSU, said.

“I got into the School thanks to my scientific supervisor Konstantin Alekseevich Chizhov. He offered my partner and me to participate, which I was incredibly happy about, because I really wanted to visit JINR. The Institute provides a huge range of possible tasks and directions. At the moment, I am developing a web application for neutron spectra reconstruction and at the same time completing a bachelor’s degree at Dubna State University. This is a great opportunity to learn something new and get involved in great achievements in science,” Artem Belii shared.

“A year and a half ago, as part of our training practice, JINR specialists offered us several topics related to the development of systems for the SPD experiment at the NICA collider. One of them seemed interesting and important to me, since I had not previously dealt with development-related things, but I wanted to develop in this direction. Now I am creating a data management system for SPD Online Filter under the supervision of Danila Anatolievich Oleynik and have managed to learn a lot during this time. Participating in the School was useful not only in terms of preparing for the diploma defense. It was interesting to listen to the reports of the other participants and find out what colleagues are doing,” Polina Korshunova, a second-year master’s student at MEPhI, said.

The Spring School featured reports by the students from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba (RUDN University), Dubna State University, Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU), Saint Petersburg State Marine Technical University (SMTU), Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, MSU branch in Dubna and Sukhoi State Technical University of Gomel (GSTU).

As reported by MLIT
Photos by Alexey Vorontsov and Elena Puzynina