17th PRO Science event headlined by chess grandmaster Sergey Karyakin, cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and blogger Dmitry Puchkov

The evening of 10 November was very boisterous at KFU, with 4,000 Kazanites visiting the most celebrity-packed Science Night ever. The general partner was Obshchestvo Znanie (Russian Knowledge Society).

At the opening ceremony, greetings were extended by First Vice-Rector Dmitry Tayursky, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan Andrey Pominov, and Deputy General Director for Regional Development of the Russian Knowledge Society Georgy Budny.

Dmitry Puchkov (widely known by his alias, the Goblin), presented a lecture on Russian history.

World chess vice-champion Sergey Karyakin shared his thoughts on chess engines, the future of the ancient game, its current surge popularity, and training techniques for young players.

Popular science lecturer, TV host Sergey Malozyomov spoke about today’s most interesting technologies, such as LEDs, biometrics, 3D printing, robotics, wireless communications, drones, AI, and much more.

Head of External Promotion at VK.com Vyacheslav Prokhorov informed the audience about the service’s latest UX innovations and the best techniques for targeted ads.

Cosmonaut, Hero of the Russian Federation Valery Tokarev shared his path of becoming a space explorer and disclosed some of the little secrets of spending time in the orbit.

Dmitry Sobolev, a popular blogger on paleontology and evolution, painted a picture of the life of mammals in the times of dinosaurs.

KFU’s own renowned experts also made contributions.

For instance, Vice-Rector for Biomedicine Andrey Kiyasov spoke about circadian rhythms and new medical approaches to a person’s individual biological clock.

Director of the Institute of IT and Intelligent Systems Mikhail Abramsky taught the audience basic security rules on the Internet and how to handle their personal data.

Director of the Institute of AI, Robotics and System Engineering Dmitry Chikrin weighed in on the industrial revolution.

Head of the Department of Marketing Natalya Kalenskaya talked about neuromarketing.

Finally, Head of the Division of Innovation Development Anton Dyganov gave advice on how to obtain a social entrepreneurship grant in Tatarstan.

There were also a number of interactive booths, a photo exhibition, a FPV drone booth, tabletop game grounds, and many more points of interest for the visitors.

The night ended with a mapping show on the University’s Second Building, where the PRO Science took place.