ITMO: ITMO Highpark Becomes Russia’s First Smart Campus
The world-class research, education, and innovation center will become the first pilot site of the Smart Campus project. The relevant agreement was signed by SberMobile, Orange Business Services, ITMO Highpark JSC, and ITMO University at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2021.
Through joint efforts, the organizations plan to build a digital ecosystem for modernizing university infrastructure throughout the country. The smart campus will utilize SberBank’s platform solutions and Orange Business Services’ technologies and practices that the company has used in creating smart spaces around the world. The project aims to create a comfortable and safe environment for living and learning at the innovation center by adopting Sberbank’s IIoT platform and ITMO’s expertise in AI and predictive analytics. The management of buildings, networks, and other infrastructure elements will be performed with the use of innovative software solutions.
“It’ll take several years to construct ITMO’s second campus. Since technology doesn’t stand still, we should not only use today’s newest solutions, but also lay the groundwork for the future so that the smart campus could become a reliable and advanced assistant for our students and employees in bringing their boldest ideas to life,” comments Daria Kozlova, ITMO’s First Vice Rector.
While ITMO Highpark will be used to implement and test platform solutions, SberMobile and Orange Business Services will be responsible for establishing the ecosystem and providing maintenance and support for various digitalization tools for smart campuses. Potentially, this experience will be used in other major university projects in Russia and abroad.
“The rapid evolution of information technology encourages society to speed up progress and quickly respond to changes. We intend to integrate the most advanced solutions to create an eco-friendly platform and thus increase the efficiency of student training, accelerate research, boost productivity in startups, as well as drastically improve the quality of life and comfort level at next-generation campuses. As a result, people will be able to save their most valuable asset – time,” notes Ruslan Gurdzhiyan, CEO of Sberbank-Telecom LLC.
“We’ve participated in more than a hundred smart-city projects around the world. We were engaged in the development of both individual elements and the overall concepts of digital services,” says Richard van Wageningen, Senior Vice President of Orange Business Services for the IMEAR (Indirect, Middle East, Africa, and Russia) Region. “Moreover, our company has extensive experience in implementing IoT projects: we’ve connected more than 19 million devices around the world. And I’m sure that this collaboration will bring great results.”
“Not only will we create a comfortable and safe environment but we’ll also reduce the cost of maintaining the university’s infrastructure,” explains Andrey Nazarov, General Director of ITMO Highpark JSC. “Moreover, this project will also have a positive impact on the socio-economic development of St. Petersburg and other Russian cities that hold scientific and educational potential in the form of universities and campuses.”
“ITMO Highpark’s digital ecosystem will become the first step towards the Smart City system, which will be at the core of the Yuzhny satellite city (the future location of ITMO Highpark – Ed.),” adds Sergey Khromov, General Director of Yuzhny Satellite City LLC. “The key feature of all smart systems is their complexity, and we will be actively involved in the digitization of Yuzhny’s first resident.”