On July 24, 2025, the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) at Nazarbayev University hosted a delegation of students and faculty from the Dushanbe Innovation Institute, Tajikistan. The visit aimed to explore avenues for academic collaboration and introduce students to the forefront of AI innovation in Kazakhstan.
The program began with a presentation by Aigerim Sarsenova, Senior External Affairs Manager at ISSAI, who introduced the institute’s mission, research focus areas, and ongoing projects. She highlighted ISSAI’s role in advancing AI technologies that are locally relevant and globally impactful.
Following this, Aliya Tussupova, ISSAI’s PR Manager, spoke about the ISSAI Summer Research Program, which provides students with opportunities to participate in active research and collaborate with AI experts on real-world projects.
As part of the lab visit, Data Scientist Aspandiyar Nurimanov demonstrated ISSAI’s flagship technologies, including:
- Oylan2 – an audio-vision-language model capable of multimodal reasoning and document understanding;
- MangiSoz – a natural language processing model, featuring speech recognition, synthesis, and translation capabilities;
- Beynele – an AI image generation model that produces visuals in a culturally authentic Kazakh style.
The students engaged actively throughout the session, asking insightful questions about model capabilities, training processes, and practical applications. Aspandiyar provided thorough responses and shared valuable perspectives on the future of AI in the region.
ISSAI remains open and committed to fostering academic collaboration with universities and institutes across Central Asia.