On July 31, the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) at Nazarbayev University celebrated the successful completion of its 2025 Summer Research Program (SRP) — a nine-week intensive research experience that brought together talented undergraduate students from Kazakhstan and abroad.

The Closing Ceremony began with an inspiring opening speech by ISSAI’s Founding Director Professor Huseyin Atakan Varol, who warmly thanked the participants for their hard work and contributions to ISSAI. He emphasized the impact of their efforts on the institute’s mission and encouraged them to continue pursuing their academic and professional goals with the same passion and perseverance.

The highlight of the day was the final project showcase, where each team presented the outcomes of their summer research program. Students summarized their progress, shared key learnings, and demonstrated the practical applications of their research across various fields of AI, robotics, and software development.

All the Mentors also delivered closing remarks, expressing their sincere appreciation to the participants. They noted the exceptional dedication, curiosity, and rapid learning demonstrated by the students — many of whom tackled unfamiliar technical topics and successfully applied them in real-world settings within just a few weeks.

Student Project Topics:

• – “Free Web Service Hosting on HuggingFace for CLI: A Summer Research Program Report”, Mentor – Rassul Yermagambet, team members: Dana Issagulova, Adam Erik.
• – “EvaluationKit”, Mentor – Akylbek Maxutov, team members: Diana Sovetova, Olga Snissarenko, Alemzhan Makhambetov, Nursultan Sagyntay.
• – “Multilingual Voice Assistant”,  Mentor – Anuar Aryngazin, team members: Marwa Elazraq, Meryam Khatib, Mironshoh Inomjonov, Adilet Yerlanuly.
• – “Food Dataset Collection and AI Pipeline for Automatic Food Recognition”, Mentor – Tomiris Takhimzhanova and Aibota Sanatbek, team members: Aiganym Kassymbayeva, Ramilya Aubakirova, Rakhat Zhumabekov, Aizhan Atymtai.
• – “Diffusion Model for Kazakh Culture Image Generation”. Mentor – Nartay Aikyn, team members: Ayaulum Khazhumkhankyzy, Bauyrzhan Nurzhanov, Viacheslav Iablochnikov, Askhat Sametov.
• – “Training Small LLM for Kazakh language from scratch”. Mentor – Vladimir Albrekht, team members: Abai Sansyzbai, Alar Akilbekov, Danial Sultanov, Beibarys Ybraikhan.

This year’s program was highly competitive, attracting a record number of applications – 275. Selected participants represented both Kazakhstani and international universities, including:

– Nazarbayev University 

– Korkyt Ata Kyzylorda University

– Kazakh-British Technical University

– Astana IT University

– Kazakhstan Branch of Moscow State University (MSU)

– Semey State University named after Shakarim

– West Kazakhstan Agrarian and Technical University named after Zhangir Khan

– Suleyman Demirel University

– M. Kozybayev North Kazakhstan University

Several Kazakhstani students currently studying abroad also joined SRP while on their summer break. These students represented world-class institutions such as: KAIST and Yonsei University (South Korea); MBZUAI – Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and New York University Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi, UAE).

Additionally, the program welcomed international students from:

• – New Uzbekistan University (Uzbekistan)
• – Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (Morocco)
• – National Research University – Higher School of Economics (HSE) (Russia)
  

To mark the official completion of the program, ISSAI’s Lead Data Scientist Askat Kuzdeuov presented certificates to the participants and congratulated them on their achievements.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all SRP 2025 participants on their successful completion of the program. ISSAI is proud to have been a part of their learning journey and looks forward to future collaboration. We hope to welcome many of them again — as interns, researchers, or colleagues — in the near future.