Three Directors of NTI Competence Centers talk about how scientists are changing the world
The Report: Facts
and figures
Facts
and
figures
What qualities should modern scientists possess and what superpowers do they dream of? Do they witness their technologies come to life and what challenges do they face? These and some of the other questions were answered by the directors of three NTI Competence Centers — Alexander Bukhanovsky (NTI Competence Center for Machine Learning and Cognitive Technologies at ITMO University), Dmitry Lakontsev, (NTI Competence Centre for Wireless Technologies and the Internet of Things at Skoltech) and Alexander Voloshin (NTI Competence Center for Technologies of Electric Power Transmission and Distributed Intelligent Power Systems at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute).
For me, being the Head of the Center is...
Alexander Bukhanovsky
... the same as being its chief designer, that is, to come up with strategic ideas for the Center’s research projects and develop them so that the results form a single entity capable of radically changing our lives.
Dmitry Lakontsev
... first of all, an opportunity to launch projects that I have dreamed of for a long time. On the other hand, this job entails a lot of responsibility.
Alexander Voloshin
... about taking responsibility. First of all, the effectiveness of the Center affects the lives of all the 40 people on our team. Secondly, we face ambitious challenges. Being a director is, in a good way, a test that must be successfully passed.
How would you describe your team?
Alexander Bukhanovsky
My team is a group of people whose key motivation is interest. Having said that, the motivation is so strong that it does not allow the mind to «get fat», so to speak, even when all other needs are satisfied. Only this type of people can advance long-term strategic projects.
Dmitry Lakontsev
True professionals. There aren’t that many on the market, so I am proud that I was able to bring together so many highly qualified specialists and excite their curiosity in interesting and complex projects.
Alexander Voloshin
Young and very capable. Not only are they studying the technology of large Western companies such as Amazon or Google, they are developing their own tools, because the existing ones aren’t enough.
Info
What are NTI Competence Centers?
The National Technology Initiative (NTI) is an association of business representatives and expert communities that deals with developing promising technology markets and industries in Russia that could become the foundation of the global economy. Since 2015 RVC has been involved in the implementation of NTI. In 2018, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, 14 NTI Competence Centers were launched on the basis of universities and scientific organizations. An NTI Competence Centre is a structural unit created on the basis of a university or a scientific organization that implements the integrated development of «end-to-end» NTI technologies jointly with the members of the consortium on the basis of a contract on the formation of a consortium.
These centers are tasked with transferring results of fundamental science to specific market products by organizing consortia with industrial partners, as well as training NTI «end-to-end» technology specialists in such spheres as big data, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, new and portable energy sources, robotics and mechatronics components, wireless communication technologies, virtual and augmented reality technologies and others. The consortium participants determine the specific directions of the Centers, as well as a set of ongoing projects, taking into account the prospects for their commercialization. The main effectiveness indicators of NTI Competence Centers are demonstrated in the number of trained specialists, center’s volume of income and the number of licensed technologies. RVC monitors and supports the activities of the Centers.
The most useful and amazing embodiment of technology that you are working on?
Alexander Bukhanovsky
The technology of digital personalities — personal assistants who independently develop and «mature» as they interact with their owner. They can carry out a different range of functions, starting from a household assistant to being an interface of professional decision support systems. Digital personality technically implements the cognitive operating system, which fundamentally changes the approach to the development and use of software and various services on the Internet, giving them a «human face». A digital personality can become anything to the owner: an avatar, a diligent minion or even a cute Pokemon.
Dmitry Lakontsev
A cell phone, that is now in possession of almost every human being on the planet, is the most amazing and most useful embodiment of the technology that I work on. The invention and implementation of wireless communications is a significant milestone in the technological development of mankind. It is no less important than, for example, a steam engine or an airplane.
Alexander Voloshin
We managed to do something that no one else in the world has been able to do — we taught artificial intelligence to develop digital protection systems and automatic control of energy facilities under the given requirements of reliability and economic efficiency. As of now it is generally accepted that only human intelligence is capable of this. In December 2019 we received necessary patents and several companies have already purchased from us licenses for this software. Now, together with companies within the industry, we are developing this technology. In addition, companies from other areas are also showing interest.
What are the main interim results of the Center?
Alexander Bukhanovsky
Since the beginning of this year, we have developed and publicly launched a number of platforms, for example, for training intelligent digital objects based on big data, for supporting the ecosystem of digital personality, for generating and customizing models of complex objects.
Dmitry Lakontsev
The most important interim result is the creation of the Leading 5G Technology Research Center based at Skoltech. Under the model of the Central Committee of NTI, a small pool of enterprises that manufacture telecom equipment was allocated from a large consortium of companies. We convinced them that together we can create a technological platform for the production of domestic 5G base stations in the OpenRAN paradigm. We created a business plan, secured financing and took the project beyond the Center. We are very proud of this project.
Alexander Voloshin
The most important thing is that we’ve assembled a team. Three projects are currently being implemented and the fourth is about to start. We have fulfilled our obligations related to expenditures and the attraction of additional financing. We have ran all the necessary laboratory tests. We launched a new training and retraining programme for energy company personnel and a student training programme.
What’s your main challenge for 2020?
Alexander Bukhanovsky
The main challenge would be to carry out a systematic transition of our NTI Competence Center to a product model in the broad sense.
Dmitry Lakontsev
Make use of the opportunities at hand given the current pandemic. After all, it does have a number of upsides. Self-isolation and the need to work remotely advanced the digitalization of our lives. Psychologically people are becoming accustomed to digital solutions. This in turn makes our work easier.
Alexander Voloshin
The pandemic has taken a toll on our work on laboratory equipment and test benches. We do whatever can be done remotely. At the end of the year we planned to deliver the first newly-developed equipment to one of our customer’s facilities. I would say that this would be the main challenge for 2020.
Tell us about the features of your market.
Alexander Bukhanovsky
We have a wonderful market in terms of breadth. Everyone from oil workers to bankers need machine learning and cognitive technology. This provides numerous partnerships for the NTI Competence Center. But there is a flip side. Because our tasks are so diverse our projects are somewhat fragmented. There are many projects, but they aren’t time consuming, and their cost is low. For example, in 2019, our employees completed 22 commercial projects for the development of various intelligent technologies, each and everyone of them with an alienable software system, transmitted to the customer with all the documentation. But the average lead time for such projects is 3 months, and the average cost is about 3 million rubles.
Dmitry Lakontsev
Our market is associated with advanced technologies. We have to constantly break down psychological barriers to implement innovative solutions, look for words and approaches so that employees of industrial players better understand new opportunities. Even if it is obvious that the company must undergo a digital transformation to be competitive in the market, it is very difficult to convince its management that certain changes need to be introduced.
Alexander Voloshin
We work with b2b and b2g customers. One of the main features is long-term planning (one and a half years in advance). The market is very regulated: we can proceed to work on site if something didn’t pass field tests. We work with critical infrastructure facilities, and reliability and security requirements of our designs (products) are crucial.
How do you think technology will develop within the next 5 years?
Alexander Bukhanovsky
Not only do I like to forecast, I do it based on predictive models. I perfectly understand that there is no truth to forecasts because of a probability interval. As for technologies that we work with, I can only say that digital technologies will make their advancements during the globalization era. For example, the development of traditional artificial intelligence technologies aimed at imitating basic cognitive functions (working with images, voice, language, etc.) is a thing of the past. The main challenge in all this would be an advent of a variety of intelligent systems in different areas of human life making their interaction with each other natural. Eventually sooner or later a new society will emerge, which will include objects of both artificial and natural human intelligence. The classical society will also become a complex system in which various critical and even revolutionary phenomena are possible
Dmitry Lakontsev
Within the next five years large Russian cities and regional centers will gain access to fifth-generation communication networks (5G), domestic solutions will also be used to construct them. The current pandemic will give a powerful impetus to universal digitalization. Telemedicine will start to develop rapidly. 5G will open the door to telepresence. Cities will begin to function with much smaller populations, various high level automation systems will be filling in. There will be a fully unmanned, self-driving transportation system in place.
Alexander Voloshin
For the electric power industry five years is not a very long time. I would single out several areas in which technologies will develop. First, there will be finalized projects related to storage devices, renewable energy sources and retail electricity sales. Secondly, there will be technologies able to run in an automatic mode to predict accidents in large power systems. The Ministry of Energy is now pushing the owners of energy companies towards this. Thirdly, key decisions will be outlined pertaining to what is necessary to do in the era of digitalization. Ineffective technologies will be discarded.
If you could pick a super power, what would it be?
Alexander Bukhanovsky
What’s the only difference between a good researcher and a bad one? A good researcher has the ability to chart a path to achieve the desired result. He needs to have scientific foresight, if you will. Without it, the research process turns into aimless wandering.
Dmitry Lakontsev
I work in innovation, in this sphere there is a very high level of uncertainty. So, therefore, I guess anyone in my place would like the ability see the future, at least the nearest future. This would allow me to make more informed decisions and take the shortest path to success. But here’s what I think. If you can rely on the high-level of expertise of the team and trust your own intuition, then there simply wouldn’t be any need in super powers!
Alexander Voloshin
Get enough sleep in one hour and quickly manage to do all the work so that there is time for my family. Usually, time flies so fast and I notice that I’m already 12 or 14 hours at work.
What advice would you give to a young researcher who works in your area?
Alexander Bukhanovsky
If you want to be successful in information technology you need to study and excel in modern mathematics. Besides knowing notations, reading formulas and transferring them to program code, it’s important to be able to «speak» this language when working with symbolic objects. Mathematics is also a natural language, but with constructive properties. Both of the languages’ «blessings» and «curses» have real strength. All you have to do is be able to formulate them. A specialist who knows how to simply read or write mathematical expressions without the ability to operate them is just an ordinary «Google translator».
Dmitry Lakontsev
A young specialist should strive to become a world-class professional in his field. That is, to solve problems at a global level with leaders. To do this, you need to work in the area that you like and not be distracted by extraneous tasks. Do not chase money or a career. All will come when you become a professional.
Alexander Voloshin
I advise the guys who work for us to trust their inner voice and their thoughts. We are working with technologies that experts do not fully understand and cannot even imagine the effects of them. If you are confident in your own analysis and understand the task at hand, perform your duties and you will succeed. You need to listen to what the experts have to say, but you should not change the course by 180 or 90 degrees, you have to go your own way. I would advise all other young researchers to engage in cross-disciplinary learning in order to become a specialist in the electric power industry and information technology.
