On June 30, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies opened the VII International Conference “Computer Science and Information Technologies”. More than 260 people from 6 countries and 32 cities of Russia participated in the conference, there were 119 presentations. Collected works of the conference published before its opening, include 166 articles.

The eveте is organized by Saratov University together with Institute of Fine Mechanics and Control Problems of the Russian Academy of Science and Saratov region government. Official partners are Intel Corporation and companies Mirantis and EPAM Systems.

Vice-rector for organizational and analytical work A.V. Stalmakhov passed on the greetings of SSU Rector A.N. Chumachenko and said the conference provided an opportunity to exchange ideas and discussed some results in an interesting format as section work alternates with plenary sessions.

Deputy Head of the Department of Information Technologies of the Committee on Informatization in Saratov Region, Head of the Networking Technologies Office A.A. Novozhenin mentioned that computer technologies today are everywhere which means the conference is very topical and important. He wished the participant good luck in their work.

Cooperation with Higher Educational Institutions Officer of Saratov Region Ministry of Education S.V. Berezin passed the good wishes from the Minister M.A. Epifanova. He said interest towards the conference is important to our region that celebrates its 89^th anniversary this year and has great potential for further development in computer science and information technologies. He hoped the scientific meeting would promote computer science and strengthen interregional and international ties.

Then Director of the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Control Problems of the Russian Academy of Science, Prof. V.A. Kushnikov took the floor. He congratulated the audience on the conference opening and told that his institution would like to cooperate with young researchers. He highlighted the fact that Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies graduates occupy the top positions at labor market.

Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies Dean A.G. Fedorova talked about history of the conference. At the origins of the forum was A.M. Bogomolov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Science, a member of the International Academy of Science of Higher School, and a former SSU Rector. He contributed a lot to the Faculty development. A.G. Fedorova mentioned that the Faculty turned from the smallest university unit into a big structural unit with 9 departments including 3 corporate ones. In conclusion, the Dean thanked partners and organizers of the conference.

Plenary session took place after the opening ceremony. It started with the report by Prof. V.A. Kushnikov “Mathematic Modeling and Complex Systems Forecasting”. He explained that his research is part of two out of three main areas of the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Control Problems work. He believes the society should learn to control complex systems. There is no special apparatus to do that: the main difficulty of working with such systems is that they are large, very changeable and often do not allow experiment. He explained his theory of cause-and-effect complexes and its applicability in, for instance, emergency situation forecast in aviation.

D.V. Speransky, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies Dean in 2000-2008 presented a report on “”Evolutionary Computation”. He told about traditional and alternative methods of optimization problems solving, applying genetic algorithms, genetic and evolution programming. Additionally, D.V. Speransky spoke about “Swarm Intelligence” and explained its work on living organisms.

The audience could ask questions. The plenary session ended with presentations of partner companies. After a short break, opened sessions on computer modeling, applied algebraic dynamics and relativity and reachability issues, information technologies in different areas of life, etc. the conference works for three days.