The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have launched an academic mobility program that will allow students from both universities to take innovation courses at Skoltech and entrepreneurship courses at the MIPT+Skolkovo Department of Technology Entrepreneurship in the 2024-2025 academic year.

A joint educational initiative launched as part of the extensive cooperation between Skoltech and MIPT and their joint double-degree master’s program in technology innovation and entrepreneurship, the new academic mobility program aims to enhance the learning process and teach top professionals for knowledge-intensive industries. Academic mobility allows students to study the disciplines without enrolling in another university and gain new skills beyond their core master’s program. Since the beginning of 2023, the MIPT+Skolkovo Department of Technology Entrepreneurship has been headed by Vladimir Sakovich, the CEO of Sk Capital (VEB.RF Group) and an MIPT alumnus.

In September 2024, students from the MIPT+Skolkovo Department of Technology Entrepreneurship participated in the Innovation Workshop at Skoltech, while Skoltech students could enroll in the MIPT course — “Designing, Launching, and Developing a Venture Enterprise” (launched in October 2024) — immediately after the IW.

The academic mobility program has already produced impressive results. All the students from the MIPT+Skolkovo Department of Technology Entrepreneurship who successfully completed their IW projects commented on the high quality of education and practical value of the course. The most notable achievement was the creation of two project teams that excelled in their research.

The first team developed SOLYA — an application for monitoring women’s physical and mental health — and was offered to pilot their product in India.

The second team’s Symmetra project is a 3D scanning and measuring application for plastic surgeons and cosmetologists, which helps make anatomical measurements and before-and-after comparisons. Skoltech is ready to provide financial and organizational support to the project.

Skoltech students who enrolled in the professional education program at the MIPT+Skolkovo Department of Technology Entrepreneurship pointed out the remarkable synergy with their core curriculum.

“Integrating the academic mobility program into the educational system will help broaden the students’ professional skills and strengthen the ties between universities and industry. This will enable the formation of efficient interdisciplinary teams and the exchange of advanced expertise, which is essential in today’s highly competitive global marketplace. We expect that the academic mobility program will enhance the quality of education and increase the students’ potential for successful entrepreneurial or corporate careers in the technology sector,” noted Vladimir Sakovich, CEO of Sk Capital, the head of the MIPT+Skolkovo Department of Technology Entrepreneurship. 

“The shining eyes of our students and their brilliant technology projects are the greatest reward for the professors and a source of pride for Skoltech. The more outstanding students and their diverse innovative projects, the better. The Skoltech-MIPT partnership in academic mobility and the joint master’s program in technology innovation and entrepreneurship will help attract more enthusiastic students, create cutting-edge technologies, develop technology entrepreneurship, and thus strengthen the Russian economy,” commented Professor of the Practice Dmitry Kulish, the director of the Entrepreneurship Center at Skoltech.