Interfax opens lab at St. Petersburg University as part of Archipelago 20.35 online educational project

The Interfax Group will take part in the Archipelago 20.35 intensive online educational project intended to build teams of specialists capable of creating projects in the field of artificial intelligence.

The Interfax laboratory began operations on Tuesday, November 10, at St. Petersburg University, where participants will learn how to evaluate the efficacy of procurement in the healthcare sector using machine-learning technologies.

The topic of medicine was not chosen by chance, as the issue of supplying drugs and medical supplies has become more acute than ever during the pandemic, and it has exposed vulnerabilities in the health care system.

"Fulfilling the task that we have set should allow us to identify those medical institutions that have dealt efficiently with the challenges caused by the pandemic as well as those that have not demonstrated the proper level of efficiency and have committed violations, and those that have taken advantage of the crisis situation for personal enrichment. The results of the research could be interesting in terms of individual cases as well as in terms of assessing the situation in the regions," said Ilya Munerman, Director, Interfax LAB Research Center and head of the Archipelago 20.35 project, as well as a member of the competition committee of the intensive online educational project.

Interfax experts and partner companies will conduct thematic master classes as part of the laboratory. Project participants will have the opportunity to conduct independent research using the procurement data of the Marker-Interfax system. To this end, they will be able to apply a variety of analysis methods, ranging from the simplest descriptive statistics for detecting anomalies to sophisticated text recognition methods as well as identifying abnormal behavioral patterns.

Cooperation with Archipelago 20.35 is organized as part of the Universities Program "Digital Technologies for Education and Science" as implemented by the Interfax Group. The program is designed to improve the qualifications of young specialists, teachers, and researchers, by introducing modern practices for handling big data in research activities of the country's leading universities and research centers.

St. Petersburg University is one of Europe's largest scientific and educational centers. Today, more than 20,000 students study at the University, Nobel laureates and Fields medalists work and conduct research here, and more than 15 large laboratories and 26 resource centers have been established that are part of the country's leading Science Park.

Interfax is Russia's largest non-governmental information group, having created the advanced information and analytical systems SPARK, SCAN, RuData, Marker, and X-Compliance that assist businesses to manage risks and work with data efficiently. The group includes one of the most famous and most cited Russian news agencies worldwide, Interfax, whose clients include leading media outlets, government agencies, major corporations, as well as banks in Russia and globally.

Over the past 30 years, the Interfax Group has been developing information and analytical systems to analyze the business activity of companies, to manage credit and tax risks, conduct media monitoring and to learn how to work with Big Data. Applying these skills and knowledge for the development of education and science is an important aspect of a company's social responsibility.

Interfax works closely with leading Russian higher educational institutes and helps them to integrate unique databases and IT solutions into the educational process in order to train professionals with essential practical skills that are highly sought after on the labor market.