The Excellence Track educational intensive by the UTMN School of Advanced Studies was held at the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU). For three days the participants studied entrepreneurship, worked on their own business ideas, practiced the skill of public speaking in front of a virtual audience using VR technology and presented their project to the jury at the end. 

The program comprised theory, exercises aimed at training entrepreneur qualities, and development of business projects in teams. SAS students learned to evaluate the resources necessary for project implementation, calculate possible losses, search for partners, experiment, test hypotheses, rebuild business models and take mistakes as an experience.

 "The module was aimed at stimulating business thinking: i wanted not only to give them theory, but also to teach how to think and act like an entrepreneur. I was very glad that all teams worked really seriously on their projects: communicated with potential customers, interviewed them, created complete descriptions of their ideas and businesses, and even developed prototypes. All ideas were very interesting: from the creative space in Tyumen to chatbot for solving cognitive problems using AI. It is great that the guys understand the problems and needs of citizens of Tyumen and see how new technology could be used to make the people's lives better", — shared her impression Anastasia Laskovaya, Academic Director of Bachelor of Management Program. 

Only the best students participate in the Excellence Track. Excellent SAS students came to Saint Petersburg specially to learn about entrepreneurship from the Business School's experts who combine business practice and academic approach.

"We worked on the development of a psychological aid chatbot based on artificial intelligence technology. Before creating such a product, you have to figure out who it may be useful to, how we are going to promote and market it, and what resources we need. Thanks to this work, I became much more interested in entrepreneurship. And I really liked the thought, which Anastasia Kirillovna [Laskovaya] shared: an entrepreneur shouldn't be afraid of mistakes, you have to try, test various hypotheses, and this is what makes the product better. I was also impressed by the GSOM SPbU campus: its concept and design reminded me of Stanford, — told Dmitry Tyschenko, a second year student at UTMN SAS.

"Thanks to feedback from professors it becomes clear what to improve in your business idea and what is not working. We suggested creating a coach search aggregator. After all comments and corrections it transformed into an online platform where a user can get assistance in planning an individual training track in the form of a game. There will be no need to buy a gym membership and visit it at certain hours, you will be able to register for a workout at a comfortable place and time," — noted Milana Faizulina, a third year student at UTMN SAS.

Students not only developed their own ideas, but also practiced public speaking. Tatiana Marfina, a representative of the GSOM SPbU Center of Digital Education Technologies, conducted an immersive training for the participants. According to her, the experience of speaking in front of a virtual audience wearing VR glasses helps to boost the public speaking skill, the ability to hold the audience's attention, keep visual contact and avoid fillers in your speech.  

Excellence Track entrepreneurship intensive course is the second joint educational product by GSOM SPbU and UTMN School of Advanced Studies. In the beginning of April, the module dedicated to urban planning and economics of UTMN SAS course "City as a Text" was held for the first time at GSOM SPbU.

 

GALLERY