TOP 15 WILL STUDY AT YDL
The Yessenov Data Lab (YDL) Program competition has ended. Only 15 out of 20 grants provided by the Yessenov Foundation for the Summer School for Analysts were awarded. Timur Bakibayev, Doctor of Computer Science, who was one of the selection experts, commented on the reasonable question: “Why 15 and not 20?”
“We selected only 15 students because there was a great gap in knowledge between them and other candidates. Taking into account the training’s intensity, adding 5 more students would negatively affect the group’s dynamics and the learning effectiveness. During the testing process, we thoroughly checked the results, also due to the emergence of new AI tools in open access. This helped eliminate cases of cribbing or external assistance in completing tasks, which also affected the selection results. Unfortunately, we detected several cases of tests being passed from the same computer, and too many switches between screens during the test.”
As a reminder, 33 applicants participated in the final stage of the Shakhmardan Yessenov Science and Education Foundation’s competition. Only 29 of them passed the interview stage. 4 applicants withdrew from the competition for various reasons, such as winning another grant competition, family reasons, etc.
“14 competitors failed to complete the tasks or answer our questions. During the interviews, we considered the results of the previously conducted testing. If there were any doubts about honesty in the test answers, for example, they didn’t answer independently, or there were group answers, use of AI tools, etc., we asked many additional in-depth questions. Following the results, we can confidently say that we have selected both the best and the strongest among the 136 applicants to the Yessenov Data Lab,” T. Bakibayev, the Director of the Institute of Digital Transformation at Narxoz University, added.
We also interviewed other experts who took part in the YDL selection process.
Dr. Kuanysh Abeshev, a mathematician and the Dean of the School of Digital Technologies at AlmaU (YDL Partner University), said.
“The main reasons for losing the competition included a low level of knowledge and motivation. It was often unclear how the Summer School for Analysts would be genuinely useful to the grant applicant. Such candidates could have held the entire group back.”
Alibek Adilzhan, tutor at KBTU, noted.
“Some candidates were noticeably weaker than those we selected. This is one of those cases where strong logical thinking alone is not enough if there is no development experience. It is nearly impossible to master the rather complex YDL program without it.”
As a reminder, the Yessenov Foundation’s Summer School for Analysts – YDL 2025 – begins on June 16. The first 2 weeks will take place online and the final 2 weeks will be held offline in Almaty.
9.06.25, Newsfeed
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