With the help of the industrial complex “SKOLKOVO”, Russia intends to advance the field of high technology to Apple and Google, reports Inosmi. The number of startups in this area grows, however, foreign investors do not hurry to Finance them.
A look into the past of Russia allows to identify the potential of today’s Russian specialists in the field of modern technologies. Programmer Alexey Pajitnov in the 1980s, developed a computer game Tetris, which became a classic, the native of the USSR Sergey Brin together with the American Larry page founded Google search engine. And today’s startups are in the Internet business in the field of software development have a good chance of success.
Young Russian specialists in the sphere of high technologies in Universities get serious and technical education, primarily in mathematics, physics, computer science and technology. “In Russia, there are undoubtedly competent in the field of IT – technology specialists able to compete on an international level,” says Nina Yanykina, head of Department for project and innovation activity at the ITMO University in St. Petersburg.
Some Russian startups in the field of high technologies known at the international level, for example, the company NTechLab. Basic concept: algorithm based on artificial neural network to recognize faces in the photos of characteristic features. The company became a winner in the competition organized by the University of Washington and visited more than one hundred decisions from other applicants. With this result the startup has left behind even the program FaceNet created by Google.
St. Petersburg startup Oriense, by contrast, is less known but has great potential. A young team of experts develops technical devices designed for the blind and visually impaired people. The technology is based on a combination of image recognition algorithm and satellite navigation. Such devices are designed to help people solve three main daily tasks: the detection of dangerous obstacles, navigation, and image recognition.
Russia as a platform for innovative developments in 43rd place in the ranking of Global innovation index (GII), on the basis of 2016, which is five places higher than last year’s result. The global innovation index is an annual joint publication by Cornell University, INSEAD and the world Intellectual property Organization (WIPO) and estimates based on 84 criteria, the innovative potential of 128 States.
Approximately one hours drive from Moscow city centre is the scientific and technological research complex “SKOLKOVO” — the Russian answer to the “Silicon valley”. Enterprises leading the development in the field of energy, telecommunications, Biomedicine and nuclear technology here needs to work to reduce the gap with the American competitors. Innovative centre “SKOLKOVO” should give Russia the impetus that the state transforms into a leading position in the field of high technologies are the main hope of the Russian government.
However, Moscow is still far from becoming the new California. Startups in SKOLKOVO in 2015, could collect only 18.7 million euros. For comparison, in Silicon valley in the same year in startups was invested to 25.7 billion euros.
Need to open new markets and to consider the crisis as an opportunity for development. Yanykina believes that it is necessary not only to promote innovative technologies, but also to find customers in this region. “The Russian government and private investors must first learn about the projects of high importance to companies and less to concentrate on those developments that just draw attention and bring nothing but prestige,” said investment officer Arseniy Gromov.
