GameChangers


Game|Changers — program for ad hoc education and research on IT business. Participation is free, but the number of participants is limited to 20 persons. The program is aimed on the highly motivated students and recent graduates of both technical and non-technical universities who desire to investigate the IT industry and contribute with the best they can to the cause.
Game|Changers consists of:
classes with experts and key persons from IT industry, Universities, marketing and management fields;
intensive networking;
project based work;
internships in leading IT companies, business incubators and venture funds.
Lectures and master classes are important, but the emphasis is on learning through discussions, case studies and individual and group research projects as well as reading. Students are expected to show proactive approach to learning. Main languages are Russian and English.

Goals

The program was created to educate new wave of talents for corporate innovations, technology transfer, scientific and applied research management, education and entrepreneurship, to grow a cross-community network of professionals who are exceptionally familiar with the IT industry and able to contribute to the Russian innovation ecosystem development.

Program structure

The program runs in St.Petersburg within four semesters with a few visits to Moscow, Finland, co-working abroad. Semester I is a theoretical one and consists of weekly classes, homework and research tasks. Semester II is devoted to special tracks, minimum two of which are being chosen by student. Semester III and IV are allocated for graduate projects. Participation for students requires about 4-8 study hours and 8-16 homework hours weekly.

Game|Changer's mechanics

There are three main conditions for a successfully completed course program:
An appointed number of role points;
A completed story line;
A completed course project.
Each student has to select a role at the beginning of the course and collect an appointed number of this role's points by the end of the course.
The course is based on a number of student activities, we call them "quests". An example of a quest would be a task of some kind, an event to participate, a quiz to pass or any other thing to achieve.
Each quest has several characteristics:
Role points a student would get by completing it;
Experience point a student would get by completing it;
Criterion of completion;
Requirements before the start of a quest.
Role points show students' adherence to available roles. Experience points show the intensiveness of students' course work.
Students are able to select quests according to their preferences and their game goals. But there are quests' restrictions. There are story quests and additional quests. Story quests are tightly connected with topic lines we have. Restriction for those quests would be the completion of related quests. Additional quests are not connected to any topics and usually do not have a “relation” restrictions, but some of them can be picked only after achieving appointed experience points level.
Each week there are a fixed number of topic quests student have to achieve. Point out that students are able to pick topic quests from any topic. So each student is able to build his/her unique “storyline”. A successful story line is closed with a passed exam.

Program opportunities for participants

The program offers a unique opportunity to learn the alchemy of the IT world: how people, organizations, technologies, markets and ideas interact with each other. It provides a stimulating environment to take proactive care of your own self-development and career path. Graduates are highly demanded in the Russian labor market.
In the Game|Changers' framework there are events available for broader audience. In addition, Game|Changers announce significant industry events and appropriate information from program’s partners.

Requirements that an applicant should meet

An applicant should:
  1. have a general understanding of the IT industry and its trends,
  2. have advanced level of English,
  3. be able to acquire information and learn,
  4. have an entrepreneurial or analytical mindset,
  5. be motivated for the course and for the IT industry in general.
The criteria for evaluation are: intelligence and social intelligence; proactivity and vision; current background and potential.

Corporate participants

Game|Changers is a unique platform for organizations:
to attract and educate future company top talents;
for internal and external innovations;
for University Relations;
for producing spin-offs or growing startups.