XI Forum of Youth Scientific Societies in Vitebsk brings together young scientists from Belarus and Russia

XI Forum of Youth Scientific Societies is held today, October 23, at Vitebsk State Medical University and brings together young scientists, students, postgraduate students of leading universities of Belarus and Russia. The participants discussed current trends in modern science and innovation, ranging from the commercialization of research, financial and other support tools to the use of artificial intelligence.

The annual forum is an important platform for constructive communication, exchange of experience, establishing partnerships for development at the intersection of sciences, Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists of VSMU Vyacheslav Pryshchepenko shared his opinion:

- Computer technology, neural networks, artificial intelligence — something that, in my opinion, is very relevant today in medicine. And here it is necessary to establish partnerships with scientists of other universities. We have a positive experience with P.M. Masherov Vitebsk State University. Medical practitioners, employees of our university see problem areas where neural networks can help in the diagnosis of diseases, and VSU has a powerful base of programmers. Jointly developed neural networks for the diagnosis of brain tumors, skin diseases, dental complications.

Vyacheslav Prishchepenko speaks about the need to use digital technologies in modern medicine not only as a scientist, but also as a practicing doctor. He consults complex patients of gastroenterological profile in the Vitebsk Regional Clinical Specialized Center, which prompted topics for his own development. Vyacheslav developed two diagnostic neural networks. One predicts the risk of the most severe complication of cirrhosis of the liver - bleeding from varicose veins of the esophagus. The second, in collaboration with a neurologist, assesses the risk of death after a stroke. The young scientist shared the main result of this research:

- Neural networks, unlike simple statistical analysis, allow us to achieve extremely high accuracy and find relationships where they are very difficult to see at all. This allows you to assess in detail the risks of a lethal outcome, which means saving a human life. The opinion on the importance of an interdisciplinary approach is shared by Tatiana Pivchenko, a member of the Council of Young Scientists of the Belarusian State Medical University. At the forum, she presented her methodology for processing statistics, which can greatly simplify the work with numbers for medical scientists:

- Treatment and scientific experiments are one thing, but all mathematics and statistical data processing are difficult for young scientists. My supervisor and I solved this problem and proposed our methodology. Anyone who is going to embark on the path of science, it is important to understand that from the idea to its implementation there are many stages, including statistical processing. Don’t be afraid to take the scientific path. All conditions have been created in our country to support young scientists and the development of science in general, including the financing of projects by the state, the support of a young scientist in graduate school and much more.

Tatiana specializes in neonatology, her research has received support, and in the future it should help doctors see the risks of metabolic disorders in newborns from mothers with diabetes. Now the study is at the stage of testing the model.

For each new idea, first of all, you need expert support. Maria Matsuganova, head of the startup center of Vitebsk State Technological University, shared this opinion. She presented an educational program on innovative entrepreneurship, which she implements in her university together with the High Technologies Park:

- Children in their free time attend classes, listen to speakers, get the basics of how to implement a startup. No teachers, only representatives of real business. Young people are mainly interested in software development. Interesting ideas include a mobile application for recording music samples, cloud storage from old HDD discs, 3D sample and much more. Mostly high-tech developments. The best projects will receive funding. But at the initial stage, young people first need expert support and advice on whether they are moving in the right direction.

The forum at VSMU has become a traditional meeting place for youth scientific societies of different universities, the geography of participants is constantly changing, but the goal is always the same - to develop scientific potential, VSMU Vice-Rector for Scientific Work Elena Asiryan summed up:

- We all participate in the startup movement, do research, work with statistics. As a medical university, we first of all train personnel who stand guard over the health of Belarusians. Cooperation with other universities, our friendship on the basis of science contribute to the development of common scientific potential.