On the 24th of April the scientific and technical centre, established with the assistance and direct involvement of the company “ABB in Ukraine”, was formally opened at the Faculty of Electric Power Engineering and Automatics. Among the participants of the opening ceremony were Extraordinary and Plenipotent Ambassador of Sweden in Ukraine, Stefan Gullgren, Deputy Extraordinary and Plenipotent Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation in Ukraine, Franz Schneider, director of “ABB in Ukraine” Dmytro Zhdanov, First Vice-Principal of the NTUU "KPI", Member of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Yuriy Yakymenko, director of the Electric Power Industry division of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, Serhiy Mezhenniy, managers and specialists of the divisions of “ABB in Ukraine”, professors, teachers and students of “KPI”.
The centre consists of four laboratories, the equipment of which was provided by the “ABB” company within the limits of the strategic program of corporate social responsibility and promotion of Ukrainian power engineering and industry.
“Material and technical facilities of Ukrainian technical universities need a high-grade renewal, which is often hindered by the lack of funds. Besides, the future engineers need to work with real technologies. The skills of working with these technologies will be required at their future workplaces. That is why we started the project of establishing the training centre in the leading higher education institutions” – Dmytro Zhdanov, director of “ABB in Ukraine”, stated at the opening ceremony. – “In this way “ABB” makes a long-term investment in Ukrainian power engineering and industry, helps the economy to hit the innovative development path.”
The modern technical devices received by the faculty, – equipment of high- and medium-voltage for electric power distribution, equipment of protective relaying and automation of electrical engineering systems, automation equipment and electrical drive, – will be used in the studying process for scientific research and skill development of the energy sphere workers of Ukraine. Due to the possibility of working with it, students will become familiar with the best technology concepts and acquire the appropriate operating skills, which, in its turn, will allow the university to train specialists of those qualifications which are currently needed by the economy of our country.
“Training of the high quality specialists has always been and is now the main aim of the “KPI”. It is difficult to achieve this under current conditions. That is why the cooperation with the leading companies and firms is one of our priorities” – emphasized the first vice-principal of “KPI”, Iurii Yakymenko while speaking to the participants of the ceremony. – And the opening of this centre is an important step towards the improvement of future specialists training and enabling the specialists who work in this sphere to improve their skills.”
The opening ceremony ended with the signing of the association agreement between the company “ABB in Ukraine” and the NTUU “KPI”, after which the teachers of the faculty and the specialists of “ABB in Ukraine” presented the new laboratories and their equipment to the participants of the ceremony.
According to the dean of the Faculty of Electric Power Engineering and Automatics, Oleksandr Yandulskiy, till now only two scientific and technical centres of such a high standard were opened in the world: one in the USA in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and another – in one of European technical universities. Henceforth there is the third one – in the NTUU “KPI”.
As reference. The company “ABB” (www.abb.ua) is a leader in the sphere of technologies for power engineering and automation. Technologies developed by the company allow the energy companies and industrial establishments to increase productivity and, at the same time, reduce the detrimental effects on the environment. The company “ABB” works in more than 100 countries all over the world and employs over 145 thousand people. The company opened its first office in Ukraine in 1992. Now its offices are working in Kyiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv.