Admission Campaign

2012/2014 Report

Ad-hoc education and research program

© 2012 Game|Changers. Admission Campaign Report. Use of materials provided is allowed only with permission received in advance. All rights on images and texts are reserved to Game|Changers ad-hoc education and research program.

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2012//GAME|CHANGERS ADMISSION CAMPAIGN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Program Announcement

Information Distribution

Application Process

Interviews and Additional Test Tasks

Final Selection

Feedback Meeting

Admission Statistics

Authors

Attachments

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Gender distribution (percentage)

Figure 2. Distribution between Higher Education Institutions (persons)

Figure 3. Distribution of applicants’ background (persons)

Figure 4. Applicants’ current status: studying or employed (percentage)

Figure 5. Distribution of applicants’ mail services (percentage)

Figure 6. Distribution of applicants’ social network profiles (percentage)

Figure 7. GameChangers 2012/2014: gender distribution (percentage)

Figure 8. GameChangers 2012/2014: universities and specialties (persons)

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Introduction

The admission campaign to the GameChangers program 2012/2014 (further – the Program)

took place from July till September 2012. It has been conducted in several steps:

1. Program announcement in the Internet (July-September, 2012).

2. Information distribution through partner, academia and community networks (July-

September, 2012).

3. On-line application process and further application assessment (July, 6 – September, 14,

2012).

4. Interviews and additional test tasks (September 5-21, 2012).

5. Final selection (September 21, 2012).

6. Feedback meeting (September 23, 2012).

Program Announcement

In order to reach potential students, the Program has been widely announced in the Internet

via:

Program’s official web page (www.gamechangers.ru/join);

Vkontakte group (vkontakte.ru/gamechangers);

Facebook page (facebook.com/GameChangersRussia);

Twitter account (@GameChangersRu);

Media sources and Information Partners (Habrahabr, Startuppoint, etc);

University channels (University ITMO, SPbSU, GSOM at SPbSU, etc.);

Communities and incubators web-sites (e.g. Project “HomeWork”, “Ingria”, etc.);

On-site presentations at Universities (LETI, Herzen University, SPbSU Biology Faculty,

SPbSUEE).

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2012//GAME|CHANGERS ADMISSION CAMPAIGN

Detailed list of sources can be found in the Attachment 1. The total number of publications in

media, including Universities, communities and social networks is 40. Several announcements

examples can be seen at the Picture 1 (Ingria, University ITMO, CS club, SPSU Law Faculty).

Picture 1. Several examples of announcements screenshots

Information Distribution

Information send-outs have been distributed through Institutions, Academic and Corporate

Partners. The total amount of mailing lists was 19 (see the table in the Attachment 2). Amongst

all, admission was announced in the GameChangers Google group (Picture 2).

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Picture 2. GameChangers: It Industry Google Group announcement

In addition, the Program’s poster has been produced and distributed in main Universities and

partner organizations, 83 in total (Picture 3). The full size poster is available here (PDF, 468 K).

Picture 3. Program poster and the poster on the information board at SPbSU

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2012//GAME|CHANGERS ADMISSION CAMPAIGN

Application Process

Application period lasted for two and a half months. Each applicant had to fill in an online

registration form with open questions about their biography, achievements and expectations

from the course as well as related to the IT industry. The form included the following fields:

Name, contact details, social network profile;

Short bio and achievements;

Your expectations from the course;

What IT trends do you see?

What areas/industries do you consider the most promising for IT introduction?

Name a success story in IT you like and/or IT person (scientist, engineer, business

person) you admire;

Which of your knowledge, skills and abilities can be useful to make the course better?

Link to your term work, project report or publication that highlights your experience in

writing/analysis/design /etc. (optional);

Recommend a person who can be a promising candidate or an expert (optional).

The Program received 125 valid applications in total. They were evaluated independently by

Program’s curators and representatives of partner organizations. The most questionable entries

were discussed in a team.

The candidates were assessed according to several criteria:

General and social intelligence

Pro-activity and vision

Current background and further potential

Motivation

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Admission team included:

Sergey Dmitriev, Program Director

Ivan But, Program Coordinator

Ekaterina Chaykina, Admission Coordinator

Nikolay Vyahhi, Biotechnology Track Curator

Mikhail Vink, International Relations Coordinator

Alexandra Shishova, Research Coordinator

Vladimir Aluferov, Business Analyst at Exigen Services

Pavel Votchintsev, Academic Program Coordinator at University ITMO

Alexey Knorre, GameChangers 2010/2011 graduate

Alexander Kim, GameChangers 2011/2012 graduate

Interviews and Additional Test Tasks

63 face-to-face interviews have been conducted with authors of the most interesting

applications. Interview process took 10 days and included 59 initial and four additional

meetings (one was conducted over Skype). Each interview lasted for one and a half hour and

consisted of three stages:

Test (30 min., 5 open questions in English);

Conversation with another candidate (30 min., no language requirements);

Interview with the Program’s committee (30 min., in a form of an open conversation in

both English and Russian).

Furthermore, a number of additional home tasks were given in order to better assess abilities

and potential of several candidates. They were developed according to the Program’s focus and

candidate’s background, expertise and interests. Subsequently, these tasks were evaluated by

Program’s curators and representatives of partner organizations. In addition, provided examples

of the coursework, presentations, CVs and other results of the student’s activity were taken into

account. Picture 4 illustrates the interview process. Interviews were held in the offices of

partner organizations: EMC2, Business Incubator QD, i-Free and AU RAS.

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2012//GAME|CHANGERS ADMISSION CAMPAIGN

Picture 4. Interviews at EMC2 (1, 2), QD (3), Skype interview at AU RAS (4)

Additional tasks have been also given to students whose applications were considered average,

but revealed potential. They were offered to choose a year and creatively describe major event

in the IT industry that occurred over this period. Authors of the best texts (both content and

presentation of the results was taken into account) were invited to an interview.

Final Selection

The goal of the selection process was to identify the most valuable students with high potential.

The candidate’s image constituted from his or her general understanding of the IT industry and

its trends, ability to acquire information and learn, level of English, entrepreneurial or/and

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analytical mindset, and motivation for the course and for the IT industry in general. In addition,

the Program aimed at composing an interdisciplinary and diverse group.

Firstly, the short list of 38 applicants was created (Attachment 3). Eventually, admission team

selected 25 students of the core group. Students were notified by e-mail on 22nd of September.

The first organizational group meeting took place on 23rd of September at the 2Nova Interactive

office. The final list of students enrolled to the Program 2012/2014 is available in the

Attachment 4.

Feedback Meeting

On Sunday, 23nd of September the feedback meeting “FeedBack Party” was organized for

applicants who had not been accepted to the Program. During the three hour meeting, around

30 candidates received detailed comments on their applications and interviews as well as

suggestions and advice for their future endeavors (Picture 5). They had also an opportunity to

provide valuable feedback to the Program team on the application process. Students admitted

to the Program could also participate.

Picture 5. GameChangers team and students at the Feedback party

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Admission Statistics

Total number of received applications is 126, among them 125 were valid. 57% of all candidates

were male, and 43% - female.

Figure 1. Gender distribution (percentage)

106 candidates (85%) have provided information about their education (Figure 2). The main

universities represented were: St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU), and separately Graduate

School of Management (GSOM) within SPbSU, National Research University ITMO (University

ITMO), St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI" (LETI), St. Petersburg State Polytechnical

University (SPbSPU) and Higher School of Economics (HSE). Many other Universities were

indicated, but they demonstrated fairly low activity (only 1 or 2 applications from each of

them).

Figure 2. Distribution between Higher Education Institutions (persons)

57%

43% Male

Female

34

20 10

9

9

4

17 3

SPbSU

University ITMO

SPbSU GSOM

LETI

SPbSPU

HSE

Other in Russia

Other abroad

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Most of candidates have Programming & Computer Science (30%) and Economics, Finance &

Management as their background (21%). The rest of them have different majors, as can be seen

from the Figure 3.

Figure 3. Distribution of applicants’ background (persons)

119 candidates (95%) indicated their current status: as of application period, 58% of them were

students (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Applicants’ current status: student or graduate (percentage)

34

23 7

7

7

6

4

3

3 3

2 2

11 Programming & CS

Economics, Finance & Management

Applied Math

Physics

Social & Political Science

Engineering

Entrepreneurship

Law

Journalism & Publishing

Design

Linguistics

Biology

Other

58%

42% Student

Graduate

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124 persons provided their e-mail address. Figure 5 demonstrates that Gmail holds the position

of the most popular mail service (72 persons, 58%). The next closest – mail.ru – use 18

applicants (15%).

Figure 5. Distribution of applicants’ mail services (percentage)

65 out of 95 (68%) candidates indicated Vkontakte as their social networking tool (Figure 6). The

next popular were Facebook (24%) and LinkedIn (8%).

Figure 6. Distribution of applicants’ social network profiles (percentage)

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Gmail

Mail.ru

Yandex

Other

University/work…

Rambler

Hotmail

Yahoo

Personal domain

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Vkontakte

Facebook

Linkedin

Blogs

Google+

Twitter

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Final Group: Statistics

GameChangers 2012/2014 intake consists of 25 students. The gender distribution in the final

group is depicted in Figure 7.

Figure 7. GameChangers 2012/2014: gender distribution (percentage)

The majority of this year students came from SPbSU (10 persons, 38%) and University ITMO (7

persons, 29%). The leading specialty is IT&CS (10 persons, 42%). The complete distribution can

be seen in Figure 8.

Figure 8. GameChangers 2012/2014: universities and specialties (persons)

44%

56%

Male

Female

10

7

3

2 1

1 1 SPbSU

University ITMO

ELTECH

SPSPU

Herzen University

Finek

Law Academy

10

4 3

2

2

1 1

1 1 IT & CS

Economics & Management

Journalism & Publishing

Biology

Philology & Linguistics

PR

Sociology

Engineering

Law

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Authors

Report prepared by Ekaterina Chaykina, Admission Coordinator.

Statistics prepared by Ekaterina Chaykina and Alexey Knorre.

Design: Sergey Karashevich.

Editors: Ivan But, Program Coordinator; Sergey Dmitriev, Program Director.

Game|Changers Admission Campaign Report

Attachments

Attachment 1. List of the sources (Media, Communities and Universities) MEDIA

# date media in charge contact in media status links

1 06,07 VKontake (VK) Chaykina -- published http://vk.com/wall-28619052_108; http://vk.com/wall-28619052_141

2 06,07 Facebook Chaykina -- published https://www.facebook.com/GameChangersRussia

3 60,07 Twitter Chaykina -- published https://twitter.com/GameChangersRu/status/237914404203671552

4 03,07 HabraHabr Dmitriev -- published http://habrahabr.ru/post/150721/

5 28,08 Ingria news Chaykina Denis Gavrilov published http://ingria-startup.ru

6 28,08 CS Club Chaykina Alexander Kulikov published http://compsciclub.ru/node/2033

7 21,08 Startuppoint Chaykina Ekaterina Chaykina published http://startuppoint.ru/blog/public/38433.html

8 28,08 HackDay VK Chaykina Mikhail Kulakov published http://vk.com/wall-12739279_315

9 19,07 FRUCT VK Chaykina Ekaterina Chaykina published http://vk.com/wall-1574365_643

10 21,08 QD VK Chaykina Maria Buriak published http://vk.com/qdincubator?; http://vk.com/qdincubator?

11 03,09 T&P Chaykina Elena Ilina published the link is not unavailable

12 04,09 PaperPaper Vink Anna Kosinskaya published http://paperpaper.ru/gamechangers/

13 31,08 HSE{Inc} Dmitriev Natalia Fedotova published http://inc.hse.ru/article/2012/09/07/_2252.htm

14 25,08 Leprosorium.ru Chaykina Vladimir Aluferov published http://spb.leprosorium.ru/comments/1128595

15 04,09 Project 'HomeWork' (VK) Dmitriev Sergey Dmitriev published http://vk.com/wall-27626609_538

16 19,07 Zona Deistviya (VK) Chaykina Lifshits Yury published http://vk.com/wall-34543568_1189

17 21,08 LiveJournal Chaykina Alexey Knorre published http://kilex.livejournal.com/69774.html

18 19,07 Entrepreneurs Club VK Chaykina Ivan Belyaev published http://vk.com/wall-19885516_982

19 10,09 Ponedelnik (paper) Dmitriev Alexandr Matros published link

COMMUNITIES AND UNIVERSITIES

# date media in charge contact status links

1 03,09 BEST VK Chaykina Igor Asonov published http://vk.com/wall-3558335_754

2 03,09 Engenering Competition VK Chaykina Igo Asonov published http://vk.com/wall-7629564_398

3 04,09 IFMO en news site Chaykina Rybin Andrew, Fedor Tsarev published http://en.ifmo.ru/index.php?

4 04,09 IFMO ru news site Chaykina Fedor Tsarev published http://www.ifmo.ru/

5 03,09 Herzen University Chaykina Anastasya Semenova published http://dekanat.fit-herzen.ru/

6 03,09 SPBSU of Telecommunications Chaykina Maxim Arzumanyan published http://www.fem-sut.spb.ru/news/464------gamechangers

7 28,08 HSE social media Chaykina Tatiana Chernova published vk.com/1; vk.com/2; vk.com/3; vk.com/4

8 21,08 Sociology Fac VK group Chaykina Alexey Knorre published http://vk.com/wall-11007759_7257

9 31,08 SPSU Law department Dmitriev, Chaykina Elena Kilinkarova published http://law.spbu.ru/Home.aspx

10 21,08 Engecon VK Chaykina Dmitry Fedorov published http://vk.com/wall-24078113_305

11 31,08 IEEE RNW SB LETI Vink Mikhail Vink published link1; link2; link3

12 01,09 Profyrost.ru Dmitriev Tatiana Sueva published http://vk.com/wall-40225209_144

13 27,08 Community NEXT, VK Dmitriev Elnara Petrova published http://vk.com/wall-6386_32375

14 19,07 G|C 2011 group Chaykina -- published http://vk.com/wall-30868784_65 15 02,09 Bioinf courses AU Chaykina Nikolay Vyahhi published http://vk.com/wall-29354345_32

16 27,08 FabLabs Dmitriev Dmitry Spivak published http://vk.com/wall-41101320_19

17 19,07 LETI, VK Chaykina -- published http://vk.com/

18 17,08 IFMO, VK Chaykina -- published http://vk.com/topic-94_26778090

19 19,07 Polytech, VK Chaykina -- published http://vk.com/topic-1061_26766054 20 17,08 Polytech FTC, VK Chaykina -- published http://vk.com/topic-82_27405240 21 17,08 Math-Mech, VK Chaykina -- published http://vk.com/topic-171_26765897

Game|Changers Admission Campaign Report

Attachment 2. Mailing lists

# date media in charge contact person

1 28,08 Ingria send out Chaykina Denis Gavrilov 2 28,08 HackDay send out Chaykina Evgeniya Ovchinnikova, Mikhail Kulakov

3 21,08 QD send out Chaykina Maria Buriak 4 29,08 RIS Ventures send out Chaykina Dilyara Inogamova, Sergey Buzko 5 31,08 HSE{Inc} send out Chaykina Anna Moiseeva 6 29,08 CFE send out Chaykina Yana Polyakova 7 20,07 IT Industry mailing list Chaykina Ekaterina Chaykina 8 21,08 BEST send out Chaykina Igor Asonov 9 28,08 AIESEC send out Chaykina Ksenia Strelnikova

10 23,08 EU mailing list Chaykina Anna Chernysh 11 04,09 GSOM Career Center But Irina Solovieva 12 04,09 GSOM IT department But Tatiana Gavrilova 13 28,08 HSE- mailing list Chaykina Tatiana Chernova 14 21,08 Engecon VT mailing list Chaykina Dmitry Fedorov 15 28,08 LETI econom fac Chaykina Anna Kouzmina 16 29,08 IMOP IEM send out Chaykina Elena Borshevskaya 17 31,08 IEEE RNW SB LETI NewsLetter Vink Mikhail Vink 18 31,08 AINL conference contacts Vink Mikhail Vink 19 27,08 GameChangers pre-application Chaykina Ekaterina Chaykina

Attachment 3. Shortlisted candidates

# Candidates considered Education

1 Anashkina Anna SPbSU, Faculty of Biology and Soil Science 2 Artemenko Kirill SPbSU, Journalism 3 Asadulina Dinara SPbSU Philology 4 Badmarinchinova Ayuna SPbSU, Linguistics 5 Banschikov Dmitry University ITMO 6 Belikov Iurii University ITMO 7 Chistyakov Philipp SPbSU, Political Science PhD 8 Efremova Elena SPbSU, Mathematics and Informatics 9 Fedorchenko Kristina SPbSU, Journalism

10 Grigoryev Aleksei University ITMOBIT 11 Ivanov Maksim European University at SPb, Economics 12 Kazakov Vladislav High School of Economics at SPB 13 Kazmenkov Gleb LETI 14 Konovalov Sergey Finek (Novgorod), International Entrepreneurship (Lappeenranta) 15 Kosinskaya Anna SPbSPU, Publishing and editing + Translation 16 Lioznova Anna University ITMO 17 Magdieva Raisa University ITMO 18 Makunin Alexey SPbSU, Biology 19 Margarita Kasabutckaia SPbSU, Sociology 20 Musatkin Roman University ITMO 21 Nayden Alexey SPbSU, Math-Mech 22 Petrova Ksenia LETI 23 Pogibelev Aleksey KRYLOV CNII 24 Potanina Anna SPbSU IR -> GSOM 25 Prisivko Vyacheslav SPbSPU, Physics and Mechanics + GSOM 26 Pritykovskaya Natalia SPbSU Math-Mech 27 Provorova Anna SPbSU, Applied Mathematics and Control Processes

Game|Changers Admission Campaign Report

# Candidates considered Education

28 Rotar Vadim GSOM at SPbSU 29 Sartasov Stanislav SPbSU Math-Mech 30 Semenova Anastasia Herzen University, IT in Education 31 Sergeev Victor SPSU, Economics 32 Spetsnadel Ekaterina SPbSTU, IT; University of East Anglia 33 Starovoitova Elizaveta SPbSU, GSOM 34 Tritenko Yulia Law Academy 35 Vagina Ekaterina SPbSPU, FTC + SPbSU, Economics 36 Yurlova Anastasia SPbSU, Master of Psychology 37 Zaikina Ekaterina University ITMO

Attachment 4. Final group, GameChangers 2012/2014 students

# Full Name University

1 Anna Anashkina SPbSU Faculty of Biology and Soil Science 2 Kirill Artemenko SPbSU, Faculty of Journalism / IFMO MTE 3 Dinara Asadulina SPbSU, Philology 4 Ayuna Badmarinchinova SPbSU, Linguistics

5 Dmitry Banschikov University ITMO 6 Iurii Belikov University ITMO 7 Kristina Fedorchenko SPbSU, Faculty of Journalism 8 Aleksei Grigoryev University ITMO, BIT 9 Margarita Kasabutckaia SPbSU, Sociology

10 Gleb Kazmenkov ELTECH, ComputerScience 11 Sergey Konovalov Finek Novgorod, Lappeenrannan Yiopisto Finland

12 Anna Kosinskaya SPbSPU, Publishing and Editing/Translation

13 Anna Lioznova University ITMO

14 Raisa Magdieva University ITMO 15 Alexey Makunin SPbSU, Biology 16 Roman Musatkin University ITMO 17 Ksenia Petrova ELTECH 18 Aleksey Pogibelev KRYLOV CNII 19 Potanina Anna SPbSU, GSOM 20 Vadim Rotar SPbSU, GSOM 21 Anastasia Semenova Herzen University, IT in Education 22 Victor Sergeev SPbSU, Economics

23 Yulia Tritenko Law Academy 24 Ekaterina Vagina SPbSPU FTC / SPbSU, Economics 25 Ekaterina Zaikina University ITMO