Tomsk State University will launch a basic higher education program Technologies for Designing and Controlling Unmanned Aerial Systems in the 2024/25 academic year. Students will be able to practice and work with unmanned aircraft systems during their studies. The regional Research and Production Center for Testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will become a place of practice, internships, and employment.

Russia will have a network of R&D centers accredited by Federal Air Transport Agency to develop and manufacture drones in the regions by 2030. Such centers are being created as part of the federal project “Development, standardization, and mass production of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their components”. The Tomsk Region has become one of the pilot regions to launch such R&D centers in 2024.

The team at the Research Laboratory of Applied Big Data Analysis at TSU has studied the relevance of the new human resources in this field in the whole country. Over 1,100 job vacancies published in Russia over the last year and a half were found using the RosNavik platform. Then, using artificial intelligence and supported by experts, the team analyzed the skills and competencies that employers expect from specialists.

There will be 20 state-funded places at the Faculty of Physics and Engineering and 10 state-funded places at the Faculty of Innovative Technologies in the first year.

The new program will contain three professional tracks. They are aimed not only at physical control of UAS, but also at managing the infrastructure of unmanned systems. Each track has its own supervisor, but they will work together.

During their study, students will be able to obtain two specialties — UAV operator and designer-drafter. In addition, they will obtain microqualifications. This will give them certain advantages over the personnel currently available on the market.