On March 22, teaching staff and students of the SSU Digital Department presented the university at the Marathon of Digital Departments. A large-scale event on the exchange of experience and replication of best practices in the project takes place throughout the country from March 13 to 31.

On the fifth day of the marathon, participants of the program from 13 universities of the Volga Federal District gathered at the "Boiling Point" of Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky. As a participant of the Priority 2030 programme, SSU joined the marathon from the first day.

At the beginning of their speech, the Saratov University team showed a video about the work of the project within the walls of the university. In the video, the meeting participants were addressed by the head of priority projects and programs, Elena Yelina. She noted that for SSU, the digital department is a continuation of the university's long–term work in the field of computer science and information technology.

"More than once our students and teachers have become world champions and prize-winners at various programming competitions. The university implements a huge number of programs that are somehow related to computer science. Today, within the framework of the digital department, these educational directions have expanded their influence not only on those students whose profession will be computer science, but also on humanities students and future teachers. We see a positive return from our students. They are beginning to realize how much the digital world has expanded, how necessary and in demand are the knowledge that we offer them within the digital department for their further professional activities," Elena Genrikhovna said.

The head of the project "Digital Department" of SSU, Associate Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Programming Elena Kudrina in her speech stressed that graduates will have the opportunity to work as programmers. At the same time, they will be able to find a job with basic qualifications, using new information technologies in their professional activities.

KNiIT student Varvara Shevtsova, studying at the digital department of SSU, spoke about the advantages of the educational process: "I've always wanted to find out how artificial intelligence works. Last summer we were invited to participate in the Digital Department project. I chose an interesting profile for me – machine learning. Now I can solve problems in this field of science in practice. After obtaining the additional qualification of "Data Analysis Specialist", I will have more employment opportunities."

The presentation of the digital department of SSU was attended by the project teacher, head of the Department of Programming Technologies Inna Batrayeva. She reviewed the program from 3 points of view – a teacher, an information systems developer and an employer. Inna Alexandrovna considers the main task of the course to teach students the correct use of methodologies for the development of information systems, the rules for the study of subject areas, and the formalization of business processes.

"There are things that are considered elementary and obvious to representatives of subject areas. For example, an accountant believes that everyone knows that the salary must first get to the 50th account of the cash register. It would never occur to him to include this in the terms of reference, and the programmer does not know about it. But he is sure that everyone knows that the context menu is called with the right mouse button, and there is no need to explain it. The programs of the "digital departments" will help them find a common language," explained I.A. Batraeva.

As part of the program, students go through a full cycle of developing an information system for a conditional enterprise corresponding to their specialty. They gain new knowledge, cross-cutting competencies and skills, and practical experience.

The head of the digital Department of SSU, E.V. Kudrina, added that about 1,200 students from 14 academic departments studying in 59 basic educational programs of SSU are studying at the digital department, 40 of them are not IT training areas. Teachers of the department prepare students for 4 additional professional programs, only one of which is designed for IT students. The rest of the programs are specially designed for non-IT areas. We are currently working on new professional programs on modern web design and digital marketing.

E.V. Kudrina paid special attention to the program "Digital transformation of education". Young teachers will be able to become specialists in data analysis, which is relevant in a modern school.

Elena Vyacheslavovna shared the experience of the university with partner organizations: employees of enterprises conduct classes, manage graduation projects during practice, conduct introductory events. At the end of April, the university traditionally plans to hold a "Professional Development Marathon" with the participation of employers, where separate events are planned for students of the digital department. At the end of her speech, E.V. Kudrina noted that SSU has created all the necessary conditions for student self-realization.

Each viewer of the online broadcast had the opportunity to evaluate the performance on the presented digital department with the help of a "sincerity measurement" - a live survey. The SSU team received a high score on the "sincerity coefficient" of performances.

Recall that the project "Digital Departments" was launched in April 2022 and is being implemented within the framework of the national program "Digital Economy". In September, digital departments were opened in more than 50 regions of the country: in 100 universities participating in the Priority 2030 program and 14 candidate universities for participation in this program, more than 110 thousand students were enrolled in them. At the digital department, students can get a second profession in the IT field for free.

Participation in the Digital Department project will allow SSU graduates to become more in demand and competitive in the modern labor market, and the university will confirm the high status of a leader in training IT specialists in the region.