SPbU students have developed a neural network capable of helping a person with disorders of the heart and brain. Students of St. Petersburg University worked on this and other projects using 5G technology in the <5G_DREAM_LAB> laboratory, created at the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) with the support of MegaFon. Among the developments there are a mobile application for monitoring the body's water balance and assimilation of calories, a program for analyzing the user's health status and receiving recommendations for taking vitamins and pills, technology for recognizing, fixing and monitoring a person's body temperature for the access system, a solution for tracking the location of an employee during a work day.

The cases were offered to students by the organizers of <5G_DREAM_LAB> as part of the second cohort of the educational laboratory — it started in the fall of 2020. There were 43 participants in nine interdisciplinary teams. In the first cohort, six teams consisting of 24 people reached the final.

Students worked according to their profile: developers were responsible for programming, integrators — for product management, taking into account commercial, technological and other perspectives. After studying the cases, the teams, together with their mentors, determined the idea of ​​the product, conducted market research, compiled a business model, formed a MVP and presented it.

For five months, the participants had 10 online courses created by GSOM SPbU experts and representatives of the MegaFon company, listened to seven webinars and received dozens of consultations from mentors and trackers of the project.

In March 2021, at the end of the second season of the laboratory, projects using a fifth-generation communication network were presented to a jury consisting of representatives of GSOM SPbU and MegaFon. The best solution was announced by the MegaBotkin team, which developed and trained a neural network capable of helping a person with violations of the activity of the heart, brain and other organs. The essence of the project is the introduction of automatic algorithms into the process of medical diagnostics. The team consists of SPbU students from different areas of study: Victoria Davydova (mathematics), Askar Zalilov (economics), Anastasia Miropolskaya (management), Nikita Porubaymekh (mathematics and computer science) and physician Danila Lipatov.

Olga Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank, Director of GSOM SPbU, emphasized: “The role of business in education is steadily growing — the business is interested in competent management personnel well-oriented in specific industry specifics already at the stage of graduation from the university. The best way to prepare a “target” manager is to directly participate in the formation of educational programs, the organization of joint educational projects. MegaFon is a reference partner of the Business School, providing students with the closest possible immersion in work realities and demonstrating at the same time a unique ability to see talents and designate them an attractive perspective. "

MegaFon is considering two teams for an internship to further develop product solutions and conduct pilots. Also, the company will help teams with finding partners for the development of solutions, including through the existing acceleration programs and venture funds in Russia for IT startups.

“Fifth generation communication technology has not yet entered our daily lives, but <5G_DREAM_LAB> is already giving students the opportunity to work with it and create new digital products today. The laboratory immerses students in the process of developing market-relevant services in conditions that are as close as possible to finding business solutions to improve the life of each of us. This is an important experience for students, an opportunity to develop team and project work skills in order to become demanded and successful specialists in the market,” said Valentina Vatrak, Director of Corporate Development and Human Resources at MegaFon.

The expert jury included Olga Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank, Director of GSOM SPbU. MegaFon was represented by Director for Corporate Development and HR Valentina Vatrak, Director for Project Implementation for Corporate Business Semyon Zakharov, Director for Data Management Leonid Cherny, Director for Digital Services Sergey Nikiforets, Director for Strategic Infrastructure Planning Andrei Grachev, Director for New services and partnerships Andrey Kushnarev; Head of Innovation Pavel Belov, Senior Innovation Analyst Maxim Fedyna.

“Summing up the results of the two-year work of the laboratory, we have defined that <5G_DREAM_LAB> is an effective educational format for joint work of the university and business. Working in cross-functional teams led by specialists from the industry, our alumni gain competitive advantages in the labor market that are unique for Russian practice. By developing the laboratory, we create conditions for the development of a student's career at all stages of their studies,” noted Rostislav Speransky, Head of the Laboratory and Manager of the Career Center of GSOM SPbU.