Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich welcomed students on the Stanford US-Russia Forum (SURF) to Skoltech this week, urging young scientists do their utmost to influence politicians at such events.
Arkady Dvorkovich with SURF students at Skoltech this week. Photo: sk.ru
Dvorkovich is chairman of the board of trustees at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, which was set up in collaboration with MIT back in 2011.
“You should use opportunities like these. The fact that you are here means you are influencing us,” Dvorkovich told a crowd of 300 mainly American and Russian students at the Skolkovo Innovation Center on Monday.
Expanding on his answer to a question about what students can do make an impact on geopolitics, Dvorkovich added: “But it’s about persistent action, not about suggesting something once [and never again].”
Skoltech recently rang in its fourth academic year, and Dvorkovich used the occasion to remind the students: “We are counting on you, and we hope you will be successful here.”
“I ask you to be creative not only in the classroom but also in the wider community. … I hope you will become a part of this modern innovation environment here,” he added.
SURF is funded by Stanford University, Russian universities and the private sector including Renova USA. This year, forty students were selected from 550 applications, from 157 universities in 37 countries.
The students have been split into 10 working groups that research the following topics: Nuclear security; energy geopolitics; biosecurity; the Arctic, environment and ecology; new technologies in civil aviation; negotiating the Middle East; rising Asia; ethnography, anthropology and culture; entrepreneurship, anthropology and culture; entrepreneurship; and the future of Europe – the role of Russia and the US in European geopolitics.
Kenneth Martinez, left, and Ravi Patel. Photo: sk.ru
The trip to Russia is split between Moscow, where the students take part in meetings with officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry, the US Embassy and the Higher School of Economics, among others, and the Siberian oil city of Tyumen. By the end of the program, each working group has to produce a so-called ‘deliverable,’ transforming their research into a product or service. For example, one group last year produced a guide to entrepreneurship in Russia and the US.
The research is presented at a final conference at Stanford University in April.
Program president Ravi Patel said it had two overarching goals: “We want to form peer-to-peer ties. It’s very important that these connections are made early in the students’ careers. The second goal is to create real, tangible research products, something that has real impact.”
But more broadly, the aim is simply to strengthen bilateral ties and “facilitate cooperation between Russia and the United States,” said program director Kenneth Martinez.
This is the seventh year of the program and its third trip to Skoltech.
“What’s notable about the program is the very strong support we have from the Russian side. The governor of Tyumen has been instrumental in making our program there happen – he has been extremely interested throughout,” said Martinez.
Asked whether recent tensions between the West and Russia had affected the program, Martinez noted: “We don’t do anything controversial, we just do academic research.”
Berkeley student Paddy Nopany is on the “rising Asia” working group and has good experience to draw upon, having spent time in China last year.
Skoltech VP Alexei Sitnikov. Photo: sk.ru
“I imagined Russia to be a lot like China, but it’s very different. People are happier. I thought it might be a little colorless but there’s lots going on here. There’s lot of color,” he said.
Asked about his first impressions of Skoltech, a unique institution that has built its curriculum around the concept of innovating, Nopany said: “I’m from the Bay Area of San Francisco, and what I can say is that Skoltech is very, very similar to the kinds of facilities we have out there. It’s no different, really.”
Skoltech president Ed Crawley, a professor of aeronautics both at Skoltech and MIT, set the tone for the program in a speech before Dvorkovich arrived.
“It’s really important what you’re doing,” he told the students. “It’s really important that people of your age look to understand the world better. This is a formative event that will influence the rest of your life.”
“I think this program will be successful and one of the pillars of educational cooperation between the Russian and American communities.”
Skoltech vice president Alexei Sitnikov praised SURF as a “wonderful initiative that started several years ago at Stanford University.”
“The aim of this forum, which is organized and run exclusively by Stanford students, as well as other universities in Russia and the US, is to facilitate dialog on the most pressing issues that affect our countries – questions of economic cooperation and technology.”