Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT, also known as Phystech) has teamed up with Oleg Tinkov and Tinkoff Bank managers to establish a 100 million-ruble (nearly $1.8 million) endowment fund for artificial intelligence and machine learning research.
The fund — the largest MIPT endowment thus far — was initiated by Artem Yamanov and Evgeny Ivashkevich, MIPT graduates and currently top executives at Tinkoff Bank, and Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank.
“We believe that Russian technical professionals are the best in the world and we want this trend to continue. That is why we are ready to engage in close cooperation and share practical knowledge with universities,” said Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank.
In the first half of 2017, Tinkoff Bank opened a special Financial Technologies Department in the Phystech School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics at MIPT.
“Hundreds of Tinkoff Bank employees, across junior and senior positions, are MIPT graduates and establishing a fund like this is a way to express gratitude to the university. We hope that our experience will inspire colleagues to support the initiative and the number of endowments in Russian universities will grow,” Yamanov stated.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning will enable a quantum leap in client products and services, hence the massive interest we are already witnessing. We expect that the inflow of additional capital to Russia’s technical universities will help to raise up highly qualified professionals who will form the core of Russian business going forward,” said Ivashkevich.
