Arina Perekatova, a second-year student of the Master in Urban Management and Development (MUMD) program at the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) has won the competition of the Committee on Science and Higher School of the Government of St. Petersburg and has received a grant. Her project is dedicated to the digitalization of the urban environment of St. Petersburg.

“The purpose of my work was to analyze the distribution of digital products in metropolitan areas based on statistical data. And despite the fact that St. Petersburg is one of the leaders in digitalization in Russia, there is still uneven distribution of digital products among the city's districts that ensure the safety of the metropolis — access to Wi-Fi zones, the involvement of the population in making managerial decisions, and so on”.

 Arina Perekatova, GSOM second year Master student

She said that, for example, in the Kalininsky and Nevsky districts, only 0 and 1 respectively of the emergency communication terminals "Citizen-Police" were installed, while in the Petrogradsky district there are 39 of them. At the same time, according to the data of Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg, the most criminal areas in 2020 were Kalininsky and Nevsky. The population in them is several times larger than in the central parts of the city.

The student comments on what prompted her interest in the problem of digitalization: “Wi-Fi zones are located only in the parts of the city attractive to tourists while, althought there are a lot of attractive places in the Primorsky and Vyborgsky districts. Many citizens, including myself have faced the lack of contactless payment options in public transport. I plan to continue this research. I think that this project will be useful to residents and guests of St. Petersburg, and the final recommendations will be relevant for city committees and services.”

 Arina Perekatova, GSOM second year Master student

The competition was organized by the Committee for Science and Higher Education in accordance with a resolution of the Government of St. Petersburg. Its participants were students and postgraduates of universities, industry and academic institutions located in St. Petersburg. 28 Bachelor and Master students from SPbU reached the finals.