Digital Technologies and AI Day: the 3rd Day of Russian Startup Week
The third day of Russian Startup Week brought together nearly 700 participants at two key events: the International Championship "Best Digital Technologist of RTSIM - 2025" and a presentation of Yandex technology solutions – SourceCraft, AI Studio and Yandex Cloud.
Digital Transformation of Industrial Skills
The central event of the day was the International Championship "Best Digital Technologist of RTSIM - 2025," aimed at raising the prestige of blue-collar jobs and developing technical education. The competition was held in a hybrid format at the Cyberpark Arena of the IT Park with the support of Tatarstan Ministry of Digitalization of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications.
Competition participants worked with digital dynamic twins of RTSIM industrial installations, solving production problems and challenging situations. This format not only develops engineering thinking but also provides practical experience, highly valued by employers. The event was attended by:
• Employees of leading industrial companies, including Gazpromneft-Moscow Oil Refinery Company, Kazanorgsintez Chemical Company, Yaya Oil Refinery;
• Students from Kazan National Research Technical University, St. Petersburg State University (Catherine II Mining University), Kornilov Kazan National Technical University and other universities;
• Specialists seeking to develop their oil and gas competencies.
A distinctive feature of the championship was its active international participation: over 100 specialists from Nigeria, Ghana and Bangladesh competed on the English-language version of the RTSIM.
Career simulators.
Invited guests—students and representatives of leading Nigerian universities—observed the competition and participated in the discussion.
The names of the championship winners will be announced on December 9 at a special online ceremony. The next championship, scheduled for 2026, is already in preparation and promises to be even larger.
Artificial Intelligence for Startups
The second part of the day was dedicated to Yandex's cutting-edge solutions for developers and startups. Company representatives presented SourceCraft, AI Studio, and Yandex Cloud technologies, demonstrating their capabilities for creating and developing technology projects.
Particular attention was paid to the use of large language models, agent development, and multi-agent systems in Yandex Cloud. Participants learned that creating simple AI agents in Yandex Cloud requires no programming skills, while developing more complex systems is accessible due to a well-developed API and tools.
At the event, Yandex announced a grant programme offering up to one million roubles for the use of AI Studio for creating AI products. This will enable developers to build competitive solutions and find niches for AI technologies.
Examples of Yandex's successful collaboration with IT Park residents included PresentSimple, which develops a service for automatically generating presentations, and CloudID, which creates IT solutions for poultry farms.
Russian Startup Week will continue at IT Park until December 5. In the coming days, participants can expect a lecture on technological entrepreneurship at DeepTech, a mini-hackathon from TON CIS HUB and a winter selection of startups for IT Park.