This week the Skolkovo Foundation hosted its sixth annual Startup Village – the largest conference of its kind in Russia and the CIS countries.

The aim of the event is to draw together startup founders, investors, major tech companies and more to foster dialogue about trends and ideas, as well as to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs.

 

During the Startup Village, Skoltech joined forces with three industry giants: Philips, RusAT, and Gazprom Neft.

 

 

Skoltech and the Russian branch of tech giant Philips formally agreed on Thursday to launch a joint research initiative in the areas of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for healthcare applications.

 

 

Later Thursday, the institute signed an agreement with Rusatom Additive Technologies (RusAT), a special purpose subsidiary of Russian nuclear energy giant ROSATOM’s fuel company TVEL. The agreement stipulates that the two organizations will cooperate on scientific and technical matters related to shared scientific, technical and innovative activities.

 

 

On Friday, Skoltech and Gazprom Neft joined forces to create a new lab tasked with conducting research on modeling of multiphase systems in the oil and gas industry.

 

 

Members of the Skoltech community participated in a series of events, including as members of jury panels. Competitions are a key perk of the Startup Village. They enable early-stage projects and more seasoned companies to present their ideas before panels of experts in their fields, demonstrate their projects to partners and investors, and gain inspiration from fellow startups.

 

 

Professors Albert Nasibulin and Pavel Dorozhkin served as jurors in a competition devoted to new functional and constructive materials, which pitted ideas like ultra-durable polymer spare parts for drilling pumps against ideas like novel materials for children’s toys.

As with all such sessions, jurors peppered competitors with questions, ranging from how they planned to get a leg up on the competition, to whether their products could be safely consumed by children.

 

 

Professor Dmitry Kulish served on a jury panel in a competition about new medications, where competitors offered a series of innovative solutions to problems ranging from blood-clotting to bipolar disorder.

 

 

Professor Dmitry Lakontsev was a member of the jury for a competition related to emerging digital technologies, where entries ran the gamut from high-speed 3D printing technology to an automated municipalmanagement system for big cities.

 

 

In addition, Skoltech was present at the event’s Startup Bazaar.

 

 

Finally, attendees of Skolkovo Startup Village 2018 had the opportunity to check out Tensor Fields – a mobile chemical lab built inside a KAMAZ truck. 

In all, 2018 was a great year for Skoltech at the Startup Village.