A presentation of future applicants' ideas for creating a "Smart Campus" based on campus of the Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) was held. The case "Smart Campus" was developed by the faculty members of the Department of Public Administration at GSOM SPbU. Its solution involves analyzing smart technologies in the educational infrastructure and the needs of students, faculty, administration, and university partners. For four months, high school students from different cities in Russia - St. Petersburg, Moscow, Pskov, and Tyumen - looked for opportunities to improve the comfort of staying in the university and the quality of interaction of all interested parties.

"Smart Campus" is not just new buildings and high-tech laboratories, but, first of all, a harmonious space with qualities that allow all categories of stakeholders to comfortably meet their needs. The space itself helps to increase the degree of involvement in student life, as it allows minimizing everyday routine processes and freeing up time for science, creativity, and sports," believes project participant, student of MAOU Lyceum №93 in Tyumen, Polina Mironenko.

"Thanks to this work, I learned to highlight the main points from general conversations, meet deadlines exactly on time, felt confident in the remote project defense, realized the peculiarities of remote communication, studied all stages of the project process, learned to work remotely on documents and presentations with other participants."

Student mentors from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, IGIP TyumSU, and SPbU helped conduct research and formulate specific recommendations for high school students.

"I decided to participate in the project on the recommendation of my university colleagues. They promised a good experience in organizing and mentoring talented and highly motivated children.  It was an interesting project, with a well-formulated task, and active and proactive schoolchildren - it is the key to good work. Participation in the project gave invaluable experience in pedagogical and project activities," said Nikita Kalashnikov, a student of the Institute of State and Municipal Administration at Tyumen State University.

The schoolchildren independently surveyed more than 100 people from 26 regions of Russia. The research revealed that young people expect a "smart campus" to have modern equipment in classrooms and laboratories, a unified information system, support for new developments, startups, and attracting business partners to develop projects. The university mobile application could reflect all this information, including schedules, classrooms, laboratories, safety, communication with lecturers, scientific research and projects, as well as the opportunity to present ideas to the business community.

The students have successfully developed the "Smart Campus" project based on the analysis of existing data, identified problems, and proposed solutions based on current challenges. Irina Semikhova, a member of the expert jury from the Academy of Talents, commented that the students did well in completing the task, taken into account the fact that their team was assembled from different parts of the country.

"GSOM SPbU aims to think beyond the academic community and actively participate in socially significant projects. The opinions and expectations of high school students, who are future applicants, are genuinely interesting to the school. While there is no mobile application at GSOM SPbU, the "Mikhailovskaya Dacha" is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, including hybrid classrooms and VR simulators for practicing public speaking skills. Students can also book classrooms for self-study, and they regularly have the opportunity to communicate with representatives and even top managers of companies at events held by the Business School", noted Egor Starshov, the curator of the Sirius.Leto "Smart Campus" project, and a Doctoral students of GSOM SPbU.

The All-Russian educational initiative "Sirius.Leto: Start Your Project" has been implemented since May 2020 and was supported by the order of the President of the Russian Federation. The program aims to involve schoolchildren in solving project tasks related to current problems in science, technology, and business. Project work is carried out under the guidance of a mentor, who is a student and helps schoolchildren understand the task and accompanies them throughout the project. The Academy of Talents, as a Regional Center for identifying and supporting gifted children in the fields of science, art, and sports, oversees the program's implementation in St. Petersburg.