HSE Lecturers Awarded Yandex ML Prize 2025

Photo courtesy of the Yandex ML Prize Organising Committee

The Yandex ML Prize is awarded to lecturers and heads of educational programmes who contribute to the development of artificial intelligence in Russia. This year, 10 laureates were selected from 300 applicants, including three members of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science (FCS). A special Hall of Fame award was also presented for contributions to the establishment of machine learning as an academic field. One of the recipients was Dmitry Vetrov, Research Professor at the HSE FCS.

The prize panel—which included experts in artificial intelligence, heads of Yandex educational programmes, and lecturers from the Yandex School of Data Analysis—developed the evaluation methodology and established the categories Novice Educators, Educators, and Programme Leaders.

This year’s prize winners represent leading Russian universities and educational centres that are shaping modern approaches to training AI specialists. Among those recognised were heads of master’s programmes who engage students in projects jointly implemented with industry experts; lecturers developing courses that combine fundamental mathematics with practical aspects of machine learning algorithms; and early-career lecturers advancing cutting-edge approaches to teaching generative AI. Depending on the category, the prize winners received between 500,000 and 1 million rubles. In addition to the monetary award, each laureate received a grant of 500,000 rubles to use the Yandex Cloud platform, as well as access to Yandex 360 services.

Alexander Oganov (left)

Photo courtesy of the Yandex ML Prize Organising Committee

The prize winners in the Novice Educators category were Alexander Oganov (HSE Centre for Deep Learning and Bayesian Methods, lecturer of the FCS courses Bayesian Methods for Machine Learning and Diffusion-Based Generative Models); Alexey Egorov (MEPhI); Alexander Bogdanov (MIPT); and Milena Gazdieva (Skoltech).

Maxim Rakhuba

Photo courtesy of the Yandex ML Prize Organising Committee

In the Educators category, the award went to Maxim Rakhuba, Associate Professor, Head of the Laboratory for Matrix and Tensor Methods in Machine Learning, and Academic Supervisor of the Applied Mathematics and Information Science programme at HSE University. He teaches the course Fundamentals of Matrix Computations. The award also recognised Radoslav Neychev, Deputy Head of the Department of Machine Learning and Digital Humanities at the MIPT School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, and Maxim Nikolaev, Junior Research Fellow at the St Petersburg Department of the Steklov Mathematical Institute and at St Petersburg University.

Evgeny Sokolov (second left)

Photo courtesy of the Yandex ML Prize Organising Committee

The prize winner in the Programme Leaders category was Evgeny Sokolov, Associate Professor, Head of the Big Data and Information Retrieval School, Academic Supervisor of the Applied Mathematics and Information Science bachelor’s programme, and Academic Supervisor of the HSE FCS Continuing Education Centre. The award also went to Dmitry Botov, Head of ITMO University’s Artificial Intelligence master’s programme, and Yury Dorn, creator of the AI Masters programme at Moscow State University’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

As part of the Yandex ML Prize 2025, ‘Hall of Fame’ prize winners were honoured for the first time. This prestigious award is granted by the expert panel to individuals who have had a significant impact on the development of machine learning as an academic discipline and on the training of top-level IT specialists. This year’s recipients were Andrey Raigorodskiy (MIPT), Konstantin Vorontsov (MSU, MIPT), and Dmitry Vetrov (HSE University). They also received a grant for access to Yandex Cloud computing resources.

Dmitry Vetrov

Photo courtesy of the Yandex ML Prize Organising Committee

Dmitry Vetrov is a Research Professor at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science and a Professor at Constructor University in Bremen. He leads a research group in Bayesian methods and holds a PhD in Physics and Mathematics. He has built one of the strongest machine learning research groups in Russia; his team promotes the study and application of Bayesian methods, setting a high standard for the Russian academic ML community. The courses he has developed are taught at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, the MSU Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, and the Yandex School of Data Analysis.

Ivan Arzhantsev, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University

‘The success of our colleagues in winning the prestigious Yandex ML Prize is clear proof that the HSE Faculty of Computer Science is one of the leading centres shaping the future of machine learning not only in Russia, but also worldwide. It is especially gratifying that our staff have been recognised in every category—from early-career leaders to founders of an academic school. It is hard to overestimate Dmitry Vetrov’s contribution to the creation and further development of the faculty. Dmitry Vetrov possesses a unique gift for strategic thinking, and the faculty makes active use of this gift. Everyone with even a passing interest in machine learning knows Evgeny Sokolov. A talented person is talented in everything, and Evgeny Sokolov is a striking confirmation of this. We are delighted that after completing his postdoc abroad, Maxim Rakhuba chose our faculty as his main workplace. Today, Maxim Rakhuba is a leading scholar and one of the most sought-after academic supervisors at the faculty. Alexander Oganov, an outstanding researcher and lecturer, undoubtedly belongs to the group of young leaders. We are proud of our laureates and wish them continued success.’

Alexander Krainov, Director for AI Technology Development at Yandex

‘Starting this year, we have focused the ML Prize on lecturers, as their contribution to the development of AI is still undervalued. It is difficult to fully grasp the scale of their work: the results become visible only when graduates enter the industry and begin to create next-generation technologies. At Yandex, we clearly see this connection through the people who join us—the competences they arrive with and the research and products they go on to develop. Since 2007, we have been developing the School of Data Analysis as a centre of ML expertise and have been actively working with the academic community. This experience also enables us to objectively assess the contribution of lecturers who form the foundations of the technologies of the future.’

The Yandex ML Prize is an annual scientific and educational award presented by Yandex for contributions to the development of machine learning. It was established in 2019 with the aim of supporting the academic community. The prize motivates researchers and lecturers in AI and machine learning to continue their scientific and educational work. Over six years, more than 70 lecturers and scholars have become prize winners.