On February 2, 2019 international students at the Faculty of Information Technologies and at the Preparatory Department of PSU went to Vitebsk to visit IT-companies: Belarusian “LACIT – Laboratory of Digital Technologies” and foreign “EPAM Systems”. Both companies are residents of High-Tech Park.
The Faculty of Information Technologies actively cooperates with these IT-companies. The students have professional and pre-graduation practical trainings, internships and work placement in one of these companies.
The specialists at “LACIT – Laboratory of Digital Technologies” provide regular training courses in modern technologies for software development and robotics for IT-students. Besides, the leading specialists at “EPAM Systems” together with the lecturers at the Faculty of Information Technologies provide an in-depth students training in Java-technologies in the joint educational and scientific laboratory.
Ruslan Pavlov, Director of “LACIT” informed the international students about the company work directions, showed all the structural departments, spoke about the peculiarities of the used and produced software. The students asked a lot of questions, but nevertheless everybody received the answer to his or her question, because all the staff members of the company speak English very well.
The visit to the scientific and experimental complex for factories of the future development left the most intensive impression on the excursion participants. The main distinctive feature of the factories of the future is full robotization of all technological processes. Moreover, the students had an opportunity to see a great number of robots, each performing a specific set of optimally-customized operations: cutting of piece goods designed for footwear production or logistical goods relocation at the warehouse without human interaction. The “LACIT” specialists develop both the system of control over the robots and the software.
After the intense intellectual work, the students helped themselves to delicious treats with tea and tried their hands in board games.
Andrey Slizhikov, R&D-manager at Vitebsk branch of “EPAM Systems”, organized the meeting with the leading programmers of his office. They discussed the following topics in English: “EPAM Systems” principles of work, how and what to learn to apply for a job successfully.
The students were eager to hear the answers for their questions: “What programming languages are there and what is the difference between them? Why should we use different languages?”, “What skills do you need to start studying at the Faculty of Information Technologies?”, “How to code faster?”, “What do successful IT-specialists read?”, “Does a professional programmer have any free time?” and others. The students received the answers and a piece of IT humour.
Nevertheless, the acquaintance with IT-jobs, the Faculty of Information Technologies at PSU and its partners is only the beginning.
See you later!
Oksana Golubeva, Dean at the Faculty of Information Technologies
Photos: Polina Kosarevskaya