Zakhar Yakovlev, a first-year Master’s student at ITMO’s Faculty of Physics, notched up the record-breaking eight medals – a first in the six-season history of the I Am a Professional contest. 

Zakhar Yakovlev. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWS

Zakhar Yakovlev took home a total of eight medals in various tracks: four gold medals in Quantum Technologies; Laser, Plasma and Radiation Technologies; Physics and Technology of Unique Mega-Science Class Scientific Equipment, and Nuclear Physics and Technology; two silver medals in Nanotechnology in Electronics and Radiophotonics and Physics; and two bronze medals in Mathematics and Mathematical Modeling. Zakhar’s success at the recent contest continued with three more wins (not medals) in Programming and Information Technologies and Advanced Medical Technologies.

“I love competing and experiencing the new, so I am always trying to sign up for as many tracks as I can. That being said, all the contests I typically take part in are in one way or another connected to fields I am well familiar with, like physics, mathematics, or computer science,” Zakhar Yakovlev told ITMO.NEWS.

The student shares that he spent several days preparing for the contest – solving problems from the previous years and watching webinars by task authors. As his game-changers, Zakhar names creativity, extensive knowledge of physics, mathematics, and programming, as well as vast competing experience.

Zakhar has been participating in contests since his fifth grade. Over these years, he excelled at the International Physics Olympiad, the Asian Physics Olympiad, and the International Mathematical Olympiad. 

His history with the I Am a Professional contest began in its second season. Last year, Zakhar also set a contest record, demonstrating exceptional achievements in seven tracks. He had four gold medals in Mathematical Modeling; Laser, Plasma and Radiation Technologies; Physics and Technology of Unique Mega-Science Class Scientific Equipment, and Physics; one silver medal in Quantum Technologies; and two bronze medals in Nuclear Physics and Technology and Mathematics. Zakhar also became a winner in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. 

I Am a Professional is a major national competition for Bachelor’s, Specialist’s, and Master’s students of Russian universities. The contest aims to assess students’ theoretical knowledge, along with practical skills, and, most importantly, help academically talented students get into Russia’s top universities and land jobs at leading companies. In the sixth season, the contest featured 76 tracks, from urban studies and innovation to robotics and nanotechnology. 

At the recent event, ITMO acted as an organizer of three tracks: Information and Cyber Security; Programming and Information Technologies, and Robotics. The general partner of the tracks was Sberbank. A complete list of medalists, winners, and prize-winners is available here (in Russian).

Alena Mamaeva

Journalist

Marina Belyaeva

Translator