News

Akhtar Hussain, from Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, is a second-year student of the Master’s in Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication at the HSE University School of Foreign Languages in Moscow. In this interview with the HSE News Service, he shares his experiences of seeing Russian history come to life, representing the university on stage and on the football field, volunteering, and more.

HSE University is preparing to launch its second supercomputer. The new cluster will be primarily dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) workloads and will complement the existing cHARISMa supercomputer. It is scheduled to become operational by the end of 2026.

At the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) headquarters in Geneva, experts and representatives of competition authorities and international organisations discussed competition in the global grain trade. The discussions resulted in the establishment of a BRICS project task force that will prepare the bloc’s first joint sectoral study of the grain market. The initiative was presented by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre based at HSE University.

Benjamin Owusu Sarpong, from Kumasi, Ghana, is a final-year student of the Master's programme 'Politics. Economics. Philosophy' at HSE University–Moscow. Now in the final stage of his studies, Benjamin spoke to the HSE News Service to reflect on his experiences—including the various ways HSE brings different cultures together, the numerous opportunities for self-development outside the classroom, and the essential Russian phrases every international student needs to get by.

In corporations, sports, and academia, people often face challenges they cannot handle alone. In such cases, selecting the right team is crucial. Tatiana Mayskaya, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and the International College of Economics and Finance, together with colleagues from foreign universities, examined team characteristics and found that less diverse teams are better suited to objectives where a high average performance is important, whereas more diverse teams are preferable when avoiding failure is critical. The paper has been published in Economic Theory.

The devices, created by student teams, will conduct space research on the properties of promising solar cells, on-board energy storage systems, and serial electronics for student satellites.

Economists at HSE University have examined how smokers respond to changes in cigarette prices. When tobacco prices increase, cigarette consumption does not always decline. In fact, spending on tobacco may even rise: according to the researchers, a 1% decrease in cigarette affordability leads to a 0.28% increase in per capita tobacco expenditure. The findings suggest that to reduce smoking rates, tobacco prices must rise faster than household incomes. The study has been published in Voprosy Statistiki.

At least 7.4 million Russians use digital platforms to find jobs or part-time work. Through websites and applications, they work as couriers, tutors, and drivers providing passenger and freight transportation services. While young people remain the most active participants in platform employment, this form of work is also becoming increasingly common among other age groups. These findings were presented by HSE experts at the seminar ‘Platform Employment in Russia: Dynamics, Internal Heterogeneity, and Prospects for Social Guarantees.’