The purpose of their visit was to know more about the activities of the country’s leading university and to engage with young Kazakhstani scientists who are contributing to the development of domestic science. During the meeting, Dr. Ilesanmi Adesida, the Acting President of NU, provided the senators with an overview of the research university’s initiatives, values, key developmental milestones and its standing in international rankings.
“Global recognition of our educational programs is crucial for NU. Our programs have already earned prestigious international accreditations, including NASPAA, BALEAP, AMBA, and others. We are committed to further advancing in this direction. As a university initially conceived as research-focused, NU places significant emphasis on research. This has allowed us to enter the top 30% of the world’s research-intensive universities in the Times Higher Education ranking, which is a significant achievement for a university with a 13-year history,” highlighted Dr. Adesida.
As part of the visit, the senators were given a tour of NU’s campus, including the master plan, advanced laboratories for batteries and electron microscopy, and demonstrations of the developments from the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI).
Young scientists from NU shared with the deputies their projects in the field of advanced materials for high-performance energy storage devices, including lithium-ion batteries and water accumulator batteries. The senators took special interest in cardiac stimulators, devices that convert mechanical energy into electricity, and ambitious initiatives aimed at developing next-generation energy storage devices. The deputies were also presented with the operation of powerful microscopes used in NU’s laboratories to study nano-objects.
The researchers from the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI), founded at NU four years ago, presented their latest developments in the field of AI. Previously ISSAI scientists developed the first Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) model for the state language through the collection and analysis of the largest voice database in the Kazakh language. Following this success, they developed the Kazakh speech corpus, used for transforming Kazakh text into speech (KazakhTTS). Senators were demonstrated the functioning of multilingual speech recognition for Turkic languages, bidirectional machine translation for four languages, and other AI projects.
Zhussip Nurtore, the Chairman of the Senate Committee, explored the developments of the best research university in Central Asia and recognized the university’s significant contribution to the progress of science and education in Kazakhstan. He stressed the importance of sharing experiences with other universities in the country.
“This meeting’s primary goal is to discuss issues and proposals aimed at enhancing the state of science in the country. Today, we’ve witnessed that young scientists from NU—citizens who are proficient in the state language, have mastered the language of science, and gained experience abroad – are serving their country. This is very heartening,” noted Zhussip Nurtore.
“At the moment, we are addressing the challenges outlined by the President regarding the development of domestic science. The advanced modern laboratories at NU are progressing at a high standard, and I have full confidence that our scientists will make significant discoveries there. A nation that fosters the growth of science and education will always lead the way,” underscored Nuhuly Altynbek.
Representatives of the NU administration, including Acting President Dr. Ilesanmi Adesida, Executive Vice President Aslan Sarinjipov, Vice Presidents Darkhan Bilyalov, Assel Uvalieva, Kadisha Dairova, and Massimo Pignatelli, as well as Vice Dean for Research, Professor Zhumabay Bakenov, expressed gratitude to the Senate deputies for their visit and attention. They assured that NU will continue working on qualitative integration with the global scientific and educational community, as well as closer collaboration with Kazakh universities in matters of developing the education system and improving scientific potential.
