The summer school "Management, Information and optimization" named after B. T. Polyak has ended in St. Petersburg

From July 20 to 26, the Polyak Summer School on Control, Information, and Optimization took place in St. Petersburg. The annual event brought together undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early-career researchers interested in modern challenges in optimization, machine learning, mathematical modeling, statistics, and control theory.

Throughout the week, participants attended lectures delivered by leading Russian researchers and experts from universities, research institutions, and industry. They discussed cutting-edge research, took part in round-table discussions on academic career development and collaboration between academia and high-tech companies, and presented their own work during the poster session.

One of the highlights of the school was the young researchers' poster session. It provided participants with an opportunity to present their research to experts and exchange ideas with colleagues working in a wide range of fields, from fundamental mathematics to applied research in chemistry and artificial intelligence.

"I would like to highlight the excellent group of students, the great venue, and the outstanding poster session. Several posters particularly caught my attention, including some from unexpected areas, such as the application of optimization to theoretical problems in combinatorial geometry, a very general analysis of optimization methods through information theory, optimization of chemical catalysts, and several other interesting works," said participant Nikolay Kutuzov.

The school also served as a platform for communication between researchers from different universities and research groups. Lectures, discussions, and informal meetings enabled participants to exchange experience, explore promising research directions, and build new professional connections.

"In addition to the many fascinating lectures on academic research, I was especially impressed by the talks presenting industry problems addressed using rigorous scientific approaches. The lectures, poster session, and round-table discussion reinforced the idea that a strong mathematical background is valuable for solving a wide variety of problems, regardless of one's career path. The school inspired many participants, encouraging us to deepen our expertise in related fields and to explore hypotheses that emerged during discussions at the poster session," noted participant Anastasia Murzina.

This year's program covered a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from optimal control and optimization methods to modern developments in artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, and large language models.

The Polyak Summer School continues its tradition of providing young researchers with an opportunity to meet leading experts, present their work, and discover new ideas for future research.