Cosmonauts and Neural Networks: Student NIGHT 2024 at HSE
Student NIGHT is a traditional HSE festival organised by Ingroup StS. On January 24–25, 2024, the Pokrovka campus turned into a huge party area, with lectures taking place alongside fitness sessions, a dance floor, quests, and themed clubs. Designer Artemy Lebedev, hip hop singer Antoha MC, and Olympic champions were the headliners of the party.
This year’s Student NIGHT saw the Pokrovka campus taken over by cosmonauts. People in white spacesuits walked around the venue and welcomed guests, and the central atrium glowed in purple and blue tones. The festive atmosphere was also cosmic: students enjoyed nitrogen cocktails at the Alfa Bank stand, took Star War style pictures, and filmed VK clips.
Over 60 HSE student communities led by Ingroup StS devised and presented a unique event programme, which included around 180 various activities—from lectures and quests to dance competitions and master classes. About 9,000 people attended the Student NIGHT festival.
HSE Vice Rector Dmitry Zemtsov admitted that HSE’s Student NIGHT is the kind of thing he dreamt about in his own student days. ‘May your dreams come true and may you always keep the feelings of friendship and family you have now,’ he said.
The festival brought together numerous partners who entertained students with a wide range of hobbies. VK Education held a public talk with VK design director Artemy Lebedev and an educational lecture on neural network music in modern culture with an expert from the Prostor creative platform. They also supported a music show by Antoha MC. Yandex Education set up a mirror installation in the atrium where HSE students can take photos until February 9. Sber organised an interactive event and a lecture on personal data protection, experts from the bank took part in HSE Pizza Pitch (an open microphone for start-ups), and Sber’s Zvuk service opened a disco party with a DJ set. Sber and Alfa-Bank employees took part in a debate about artificial intelligence in education, and Alfa-Bank also hosted a large chill-out zone with lemonade and slot machines.
After the opening ceremony of Students’ Day, the most socially active students participated in ‘Business Dating’, a networking club for socialising and building new business connections. Club members had to introduce themselves, talk about their skills and competencies for five minutes, and then change conversation partners and meet new people.
Music to Listen to, Music to Talk About
HSE students and festival guests could not only listen to music in the atrium, but also talk about it as music experts gave lectures in the main building of the Pokrovka campus.
‘Sound surrounds us before the visual channel of perception is utilised. Even in the womb, the first thing a person begins to do is hear,’ emphasises composer and media artist Alexander Vasilenko.
In a talk about generative and neural network music, he shared his creative experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he collaborated with the singer Grimes, recorded the track ‘Lullaby’, and worked with James Blake. In 2021, Vasilenko participated in a Yandex project to develop unmanned vehicles; according to the developers’ plans, generative music was supposed to adjust itself to the time of day when a person got into the car.
Vasilenko says that technologies for generating sound and voice are well established; open neural networks already exist, for example, suno.ai.
Comics and Black Holes
Andrey Drozdov, Head of the Comic Centre of the Anna Akhmatova SMART Library and populariser of comics in Russia, told HSE students how they can publish their comics and make money with their idea. Young comic authors must first define the concept of their comics and separate it from a simple idea, said Drozdov. Then, the author should find a screenwriter and an artist after choosing the most suitable style. Finally, they need to raise funds through crowdfunding, foundations, and grants, create a spending plan, and, of course, work out a promotion strategy.
The festival also hosted lectures on natural sciences, astronomy, literature, culture, and many other subjects.
A Chat with Artemy Lebedev
One of the Student NIGHT 2024 headliners was Artemy Lebedev, the famous designer, blogger and founder of the eponymous art studio. In his welcoming speech and the following Q&A session at the HSE Cultural Centre, he talked about the industry and offered tips to students. Audience members were interested in the work of the Lebedev studio and asked how to attract the best specialists, how to organise a creative team, whether there is any point in remote work, and more. ‘Experience and education are not important to me. I mainly hire gifted talents who can spring into action and do a real project,’ says the designer.
The creative process of the Art. Lebedev Studio also uses the most up-to-date technologies. Since 2020, they have been working with an unusual employee — the Nikolay Ironov neural network, which offers complete design solutions, including logos. ‘A designer today is an engineer who writes scripts for generative systems. I couldn't do anything that my company does, I just don't have those skills. But I can distinguish a good result from a bad one—this is my task as a leader,’ explained Lebedev.
Olympic Inspirers
Guests of Student NIGHT 2024 also had a chance to work out and do physical exercises. Olympic champion Anastasia Nazarenko taught workout sessions, while SVOE:TEAM held a sports master class next door. Olympic champions Sergey Fedorovtsev (rowing), Angelina Melnikova (artistic gymnastics), and Margarita Mamun (rhythmic gymnastics) shared their success stories with HSE students.
Angelina Melnikova became an Olympic champion at the age of 21: ‘When you have a dream, you still reach for it, and you have to make sacrifices.’ She added that you need to set yourself small goals that ‘sweeten’ the difficult and long path to your dream.
Music and Dance
There was also a music show and dancing at the Cultural Centre. The events after midnight included a performance by Tabula Rasa Student Theatre from Moscow State University, an HSE DANCE master class, a game of ‘sports mafia’ with HSE Mafia, a HSE Chess Club tournament, and much more.
The dancing, partying, socialising, lectures, and meetings at Student NIGHT lasted until 6 am—and lectures and seminars still went ahead the same day.
Text by Milena Serkebaeva, Tatiana Tishaninova, Maria Kireeva, Alexandra Zinchenko, research interns of the HSE Project and Educational Laboratory for Economic Journalism (website in Russian)