Nearly 2,000 Papers, 23 Nominations, and 165 Winners in 2020 Student Research Paper Competition

© HSE University

The annual awards ceremony of the Student Research Paper Competition (NIRS) was held on February 8, Russian Science Day. This year, 165 people received awards, including not only HSE students but also contestants from Saint Petersburg State University, Moscow State University, Far Eastern Federal University, Mount Holyoke College (USA), and other universities. Another 160 participants became laureates of the competition, with 1,924 papers submitted in total.

Winning the NIRS Competition is an important milestone for young researchers: it is a form of professional recognition of the high quality, originality, and relevance of their research. The organizers and HSE Rectors congratulated the winners and laureates of the competition. Papers were awarded in 23 nominations. Independent experts who knew neither the names of the authors nor their educational backgrounds assessed the applications.

This is the first year that Natural Science has become a subject area of the NIRS Competition, with 1st place awarded to Daniil Bordonov and 2nd place taken by Alina Pokryshchenko. Both winners are second-year students of the HSE University.

Vitaly Kotov, Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and professor of the RAS Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry

A year ago, we asked HSE University’s management to add Natural Science to the list of the NIRS Competition’s subject areas. Back then, our chemistry students were eager to submit their papers for the competition. Having worked in the Russian Academy of Science’s laboratories for a year, our students gained a number of new exciting results which they presented in their course papers. Some of them were able to publish their achievements in Russian and foreign journals, others are preparing their research materials for publication. It is essential for students to be assessed by their colleagues, senior peers, and the scientific community in general.

Although the awards ceremony was held over Zoom, the organizers did their best to create a festive atmosphere for the winners. In addition to the official part of the ceremony, all the participants had a chance to share their impressions, say words of gratitude, and speak to their colleagues—the online format allowed more time for networking and interaction, which made the event more lively and interesting.

Maria Yudkevich, Vice Rector of HSE University

We are very glad to see that our competition lets you get to know other researchers, make new friends, find future co-authors, and create something together. This is why we look forward to seeing many of you, both winners and laureates, working in academic teams of our research, learning, and international laboratories.

According to Tatyana Zakharova, Director of the HSE Centre for Leadership and Volunteer Work, the competition has been very successful this year. Thanks to its online format, the event managed to expand the geography of the participants, involving more prizewinners from abroad. Ivan Gruzdev, Director for Internal Monitoring and Student Academic Development, noted a trend towards interdisciplinarity, which is reflected both in the titles and content of almost all of the paper submissions in ‘classic’ areas of study. ‘We should bear it in mind when planning the NIRS Competition in 2021,’ he said.

Hundreds of young researchers take part in the NIRS Competition every year. Some make corrections to their course papers at the last minute to submit an application, while others have already had a solid record of participating in a variety of research competitions

Alexander Babiy, HSE University – Nizhny Novgorod

Paper: Automatic Emotion Identification in Russian Text Messages

This competition taught me how to see eye to eye with my colleagues despite many differences in opinions as well as how to improve the structure of paper and present the results of my research. The fact that I won the competition will encourage me to work even harder in my area.

Marina Kazulina, HSE University – Nizhny Novgorod, finalist of the HSE Science Battles, season III

Paper: Automatic Emotion Identification in Russian Text Messages

I think the main reason why we decided to submit the paper was just our plain curiosity: we wanted to see what would become of it. I wouldn’t say we were sure about our success: HSE is a research university and many of its students do really cool things. We are very happy to see our names on the list of those whose papers were praised so highly.

The Centre for Student Academic Development invites the winners of the competition to take part in the Collaborative Student Research Project Competition.

Congratulations to all the winners and laureates of the NIRS 2020 Competition! We wish you future academic and professional achievements, research publications, and new project ideas. We invite everyone to submit papers for the next NIRS Competition in autumn 2021.