Yandex Blog

The Yandex School of Data Analysis has joined in collaboration with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment. The project is one of four large particle detector experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, and collects data to study the interactions of heavy particles, called b-hadrons.

As a result of this collaboration, the LHCb researchers will receive continuous support from existing applications (EventIndex, EventFilter) and the development of new services designed for the LHCb by the Yandex School of Data Analysis. YSDA will contribute its data processing skills and capabilities, and perform interdisciplinary research and development on the edge of physics and data science that will serve the aims and needs of the LHCb experiment.

LHCb experiment. Photo by Tim Parchikov.

The researchers at the LHCb experiment are seeking, among other things, to explain the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the observable universe. This programme requires collecting, processing and analysing a very large amount of data. Yandex has already been contributing its search technologies, computing capabilities and machine-learning methods to the LHCb experiment since 2011, helping the physicists gain quick access to the data they need. Since January 2013, Yandex has been providing its core machine-learning technology MatrixNet for the needs of particle physics as an associate member of CERN openlab, CERN’s collaboration with industrial partners.

The Yandex School of Data Analysis is now part of the game, with its exceptional talent, a strong tradition in hard-core mathematics, and proven experience of converting new theoretical knowledge into practical solutions. The YSDA is the only member of the LHCb collaboration that does not specialise in physics. Other collaborators in the project include such prestigious institutions as MIT (USA), EPFL (Switzerland), University of Oxford and Imperial College, London (UK).

The Yandex School of Data Analysis is a free Master’s-level program in computer science and data analysis, offered by Yandex since 2007 to graduates in engineering, mathematics, computer science or related fields. It trains specialists in data analysis and information retrieval. The school’s program includes courses in machine learning, data structures and algorithms, computational linguistics and other related subjects. It runs a number of joint programs, both at Master’s and PhD levels, with leading education and research institutions including the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), and the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. In seven years, the Yandex School of Data analysis has prepared more than 320 specialists.