Знакомство с Иннополисом

Before arrival I hoped to gain contemporary insights especially into AI topics as they are of extreme importance in our today life. Apart from studies, I hoped to connect with Russian and international students to learn about different approaches towards life and new cultures.

In Innopolis I chose “Introduction to Practical Artificial Intelligence” and “Fundamentals of Robotics”. They are not related to any specific major. I was given the opportunity to select courses on my own based on my personal preferences.

In IPAI the lecture and the labs were mixed, so there were no designated lectures or labs in the schedule. Labs were integrated into the lectures to deepen the understanding of the currently taught topic. This resulted in a diversified learning procedure. Every week we had to do a home assignment on the topic we discussed during the week. The home assignments were coding projects. The focus didn’t lay on the way of implementation, but on the output. We were given a lot of freedom on our approaches to tasks, so we could develop our own strategies for solving. Every week the assignments of the previous week were shortly discussed in class, so everybody could learn from the others.

In FoR labs and lecture were divided. Depending on the topic, one or two lecture blocks were spent on a topic. While the lecture focused more on the theoretical basis of the topics, the labs aimed to teach the students the practical application of the theories. Accompanying the labs, we went to the garage in the basement to work on real industry robots, which I liked especially, because it provides a direct link between the taught material and the real-world application. Every week, a short quiz about the lecture material was conducted and a home assignment was due. In the home assignments we were asked to implement a concept of the weeks topic into a code and write a report for our implementation.

This was indeed my first time in Russia or any Russian speaking country. I was naïve to believe, that I could learn Russian within one semester before arrival, but luckily my lack of skill in the Russian language did not turn out to be a huge disadvantage as I was spending a lot of time with the other exchange students (all from Kazakhstan) or new Russian friends. My overall impression of the city of Innopolis is marvelous. I really enjoyed the sports complex but also the activities possible in this still small city. With my friends we visited the cinema and the numerous restaurants multiple times. Also, I often visited Kazan, which offered limitless opportunities to spend free time. In general, I will keep the Russian people as a warm-hearted and friendly towards strangers. For everybody planning to visit Innopolis in months later than October, I can only advise to bring a lot of warm clothes, because the low temperatures and strong winds will demand good cold resistance.