Photo: RIA Novosti
US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul has spelled out his vision of the past, present and future of Russian-American relations to students of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, who will leave for the United States soon to do internships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
All Skolkovo Tech students are graduates of leading Russian universities. They chose Skolkovo because they want to continue studies under prominent Russian and foreign professors. For Andrei Boyko, enrolling in Skolkovo Tech was a conscious and well-motivated choice.
"I once heard that a completely new Western-style technological university would open in Russia. So I began looking through news updates. And when I learnt that enrollment had begun, I applied."
For student Alexandra Kudryashova, an interview with American professors was quite a trial.
"They didn’t expect us to know anything at all, nor did they appear to have any idea of our regular systematic education. At some moments, they prompted us such elementary things as Kirchhoff’s law as if we were utterly ignorant of it. But as far as I guessed, they are very strong people and they wanted to select the best students. If something went wrong, they immediately lost interest."
Twelve Skolkovo Tech students will do internships in the United States, four – at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, another four – at a higher technological school in Zurich, and two others – at the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong.
Most of the enrolled students specialize in computer programming and energy technology.
Source: Voice of Russia