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Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics

Logo: ITMO University, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons³

University in Saint Petersburg, Russia

ITMO University (Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics University; Russian: Университет ИТМО) is a state-supported university in Saint Petersburg and is one of Russia's National Research Universities. ITMO University is one of 15 Russian universities that were selected to participate in Russian Academic Excellence Project 5-100 by the government of the Russian Federation to improve their international standing among the world's research and educational centers.² It employed 1,163 people.¹ Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1900Founded¹

HeadquartersSaint Petersburg¹
Websiteitmo.ru
Slogan“IT's MOre than a UNIVERSITY”¹

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Corporate structure

Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics sits at the top of its group. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics Saint Petersburg
- Museum of Optical Technologies Subsidiary · Saint Petersburg, Russia

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

The university's birthday is considered to be 26 March 1900, when a Mechanics, Optics and Watchmaking Department was opened in the Prince Nicholas Vocational School. At the time it was the only school in the Russian Empire that prepared specialists in these areas. The first year, some 65 applications were received for 30 places. Eighteen students were admitted to Watchmaking and 18 to Mechanics and Optics sections.

1917–1941

In 1917 the Mechanics, Optics and Watchmaking Department became its own entity–Petrograd Technical College for Mechanics, Optics and Watchmaking. Norbert Boleslavovich Zavodsky became its headmaster. In 1920, most of its classes were transformed into Petrograd College for Fine Mechanics and Optics (later–Leningrad). The municipalities allocated a building for it in Demidov Pereulok (Pereulok Grivtzova). The colleges' manufacturing facilities made a variety of complex optical and fine mechanics products. The first in USSR group of instrument engineers graduated here in 1931.

In 1930, the college was transformed into Leningrad Training Center, and in 1933, Leningrad Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics (LIFMO) became a separate college. Its first research laboratory was established in the Department of Optical Glass Technologies. Thanks to research here the USSR could get away from importing expensive foreign abrasives.

In 1937, LITMO opened the first in the USSR laboratory for calculating machinery that was later transformed into the Department of Mathematical and Computing Devices. By the autumn of 1939 it became one of the institute's top departments and focused on developing electromechanical computing devices and control devices. By 1940, it had over 1,400 students and employed 27 professors as well as 80 associated professors and PhDs.

1941–1945

With the beginning of the Second World War, 189 students and 85 staff members went to the front lines, while over 450 joined the People's Militia. Classes continued and only at the end of 1942 the students and instructors were evacuated to the town of Cherapanovo by Novosibirsk.

During the Siege of Leningrad, LIFMO continued to operate a military repair facility for the Leningrad front. It fabricated test and measurement instruments for army and navy units. During the Siege, the facility developed improved optical sights, fixed artillery binoculars, gun panoramas, anti-aircraft sighting telescopes, periscopes, machined "cups" for anti-aircraft shells and parts for land and sea mines.

After the Siege was lifted, the re-evacuation document was signed on August 10, 1944. The students and instructors returned to the city, and classes started again that October.

1945–1992

The university began to actively develop after the war. In the fall of 1945 it opened a new faculty–Electrical Instrumentation, which was soon reorganized into Radio Engineering. Here was established Department of Quantum Radio Electronics, which began to train specialists in this field. Engineering Physics Department was established here in 1946. From this department in 1954 graduated Dr. Yuri Denisjuk, a future scientist, author of discoveries in holography, and laureate of the state award.

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In 1956, the researchers of the Computing Devices Department began to work on the first calculating machine "LITMO-1" that was finished in 1958. It did binary engineering calculations but the data was entered and the results were presented in the familiar decimal system. A laboratory for laser technologies was opened in the 1960s. The building on Sablinskaya Street, which is now the main campus, was built in the 1970s. The following decade saw the beginning of microprocessor technology research and the opening of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Advanced Studies to train manufacturing professionals in new areas of engineering and technology.

1992–present

In 1992, LIFMO became Saint Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, and in 1994 it acquired the university status. The Faculty of Computer Technologies and Controls opened in 1994.

In 1994 the institute was the initiator and key developer of RUNNET, an IP network that unites all large research and education centers in Russia. The work was overseen by Dr. Vasilyev. The institute placed satellite dishes "Russia's Rainbow," rented from the military, on other universities. In 1995, the research center "Computer Optics" was established. In 2003 the institute was renamed into Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics.

Academy of Management Methods and Technologies (LIMTU) was added to the ITMO structure as well as Interdisciplinary Institute of Professional Training in New Areas of Science and Technology and the State Scientific Center of Computer Telecommunication Networks of Higher Education, followed by St. Petersburg College of Marine Instrument Making, St. Petersburg State University of Refrigeration and Biotechnology and St. Petersburg Economic and Technological College of D.I. Mendeleev.

In 2009 the university gained the status of National Research University and was renamed National Research University ITMO in 2011. In 2013 it was selected to join the Project 5–100.

From January 9, 2013, to November 3, 2014, a tribute to Steve Jobs in a form of a giant iPhone graced the courtyard of the university's building on Birzhevaya Linija.

On November 26, 2014, the university opened its representative office in Brussels.

Since 2014, the university holds the name of ITMO University.

Names

1900–1917: Mechanics, Optics and Watchmaking Department of the Prince Nicholas Vocational School

1917–1920: Petrograd Technical College for Mechanics, Optics and Watchmaking.

1920–1930: Petrograd College for Fine Mechanics and Optics

1930–1992: Leningrad Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics

1992–1994: Saint Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics

1994–2003: Saint Petersburg University of Fine Mechanics and Optics

2003–2011: Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics

2011–2014: National Research University ITMO

Since 2014: ITMO University

From Wikipedia’s article on ITMO University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.⁴

Products and brands

ITMO University collaborates on research and innovations projects with several large Russian companies, including LOMO, D.I. Mendeleyev Institute for Metrology (VNIIM), Techpribor, Elektropribor, etc. The university signed an agreement to create the Northwestern Center for Technology Transfer to become one of 12 nano-centers around Russia. Originally it was supposed to be in the town of Gatchina. In 2015 it was opened in St. Petersburg on Malookhtenskii Prospect. Another joint project with Rusnano is "Innograd of Science and Technologies." It was expected to open by 2019 in the satellite city Yuzhny. Rusnano was investing 690 million rubles in its equipment. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2015 in the town of Pushkin, near St. Petersburg.

In 2012, a "Skolkovo" communications center was supposed to open on the campus of the former Institute of Refrigeration and Biotechnologies of ITMO, but the plans were altered. That same year the university signed a memorandum with RSV Venture Partners Foundation to establish a $6 million fund for IT startups. In 2013, Internet Initiatives Development Fund offered ITMO University to collaborate in opening regional accelerators to support commercially promising internet startups.

University's list of international partners over the years includes General Motors Corp., PPG, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Nokia and others.

Students and staff members of over 80 departments participate in research. Many of them are working in "small innovative enterprises," or startups, located at ITMO Technopark on Birzhevaya Liniya, offering access to high-tech equipment.

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As part of the Project 5–100, Technopark opened a coworking space called FabLab in 2015, which also offered facilities and resources, including a 3D printer, a laser engraver, a milling machine, etc. The equipment is offered free of charge to the ITMO University specialists and students.

National Research University Program

In 2009, the university was granted the status of National Research University. It implies carrying out research in areas considered key to the development of Russia's economy, including IT, photonics, optoinformatics, and urban science.

International research centers

As part of the Project 5–100, the university created international research centers to carry out joint research between scientists at ITMO and their peers at foreign research and education centers. By 2014 the university had established 49 such entities with co-heads from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, China, etc.

In order to strengthen governmental support for the development of science and innovations in higher education and to improve the quality of higher education, on April 9, 2010, the Government of the Russian Federation instituted monetary grants that were made available on a competitive basis to support of scientific research projects implemented by the world's scientists at Russian institutions of higher learning. From some 507 applications, 39 were awarded funding, including two from ITMO University. In 2013 ITMO University won two more mega-grants from the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia Federation.

Small innovative enterprises (start-ups)

Since 15 August 2009 Russian universities are able to form small innovative enterprises according to Federal Law No.217 of August 2, 2009 N 217-FZ "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on the establishment of budget scientific and educational institutions, business entities for the purpose of practical application (implementation) of the results of intellectual activity".

By 2015 ITMO University has become the Launchpad for 43 small innovative enterprises. A special department is designated to helping them find funding, offers legal support for registering, partner search, placement in university's Technopark and business incubator. Other types of support include education initiatives: classes in social entrepreneurship and projects, fundraising school FundIT, soft skill training, lectures in marketing and management, interdisciplinary seminars Brainexplain, as well as lectures by guest experts.

The university holds an annual international forum where its partners and business stakeholders discuss issues in technology transfer and development of innovations ecosystem. Other events are festival of social entrepreneurship, a competition of socially valuable projects "People need you!", and a business game "Innovations marketing"».

ITMO University was as of 2015 developing a network of startup accelerators in Russia's regions as part of the program for development of research and entrepreneurship potential of Russian universities "EURECA" and in partnership with the U.S. Russia Foundation and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). To promote building an innovation ecosystem from the ground up, ITMO partnered with "Xmas Ventures" and St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to establish a Demola Innovations Center in St. Petersburg, the only one in Russia.

German company SAP SE was instrumental in supporting the university's startups. What started with joint business incubator events and accelerator programs in 2013 grew into a partnership.

Accelerators

In spring of 2015, ITMO University launched the Future Technologies accelerator for startups in instrumentation, robotics, optics and photonics, biotechnologies and energy efficiency. In the future, the organizers hoped to attract companies working in new materials and alternative energy. The participants receive a three-month training course as well as free office space, supplies and consultations with experts in research and business. They can apply for a 300,000 ruble grant that covers expenses for research and development. In the first session, 10 companies were selected to participate out of 70 that applied. At the end of June, the startups presented their projects at the international conference Russia-EU Startup Match-making Event in Brussels.

SumIT startup accelerator takes place at the university every six months since 2012. The top ten teams from the previous sessions from Russia, Finland, France and USA secured funding from $20,000 to $200,000 and several settled in the startup accelerator iDealMachine.

World Programming Championship

In 2004, ITMO University scored its first victory in the International Collegiate Programming Contest ACM-ICPC, and by 2017 it became the first in history seven-time winner of the competition.

In 2013, ITMO University was the first Russian university to host the ACM-ICPC Finals. Some 120 teams representing 2,322 universities from 36 countries participated in selection rounds. Russia was represented by 15 student teams. ITMO University scored a victory in the finals.