On June 9, 2018 the Jury of the all-Ukrainian Festival of engineering talents «Future of Ukraine‘2018» announced the first winners of the contest that had been held under the Festival program. They are students of Ukrainian higher education institutions who dream to twist their fortune with engineering. Three of them are students of the Igor Sikorsky KPI. From now on they will have the highly interesting travel to the United States where they will have a look at modern technologies of the 21st century at the enterprises of the largest in the world aerospace corporation «Boeing» (city of Seattle, state of Washington, USA) that is one of few engineering “marvels” in the world.
The St. Volodymyr Charity Foundation in cooperation with the Igor Sikorsky KPI took on the role of the all-Ukrainian Festival organizer. The contest was held at the premises of the Education Quality Monitoring Institute of the Igor Sikorsky KPI. Those students of any Ukrainian higher education institution could participate in the contest who like non-routine and creative tasks and are well read in physics, mathematics, IT and English language, as well as are able to work on engineering projects.
The contest was held in three rounds.
The first round was held remotely on May 4. Those students who decided to assay their strength were proposed to pass the electronic online test in mathematics and physics that was complicated with engineering challenges. In view of the results fifty participants representing nine Ukrainian universities went into the second round.
The semi-finalists met in Kyiv and Kharkiv on May 12. The competitors were proposed to render aid to Elon Musk’s team in Mars exploration. The basic difference of the festival contest second round from conventional student Olympiads was that its participants had to individually solve the really non-typical engineering problems complicated by fundamental and IT modules, moreover, under the maximally general requirements to the results and in the total absence of any guideline for how to obtain them. In this way the organizers tried to select those potential specialists who are able to find just now the adequate responses to unconventional challenges that engineers and scientists face today.
The third round (30 students went into it) was held by the St. Volodymyr Charity Foundation in cooperation with the Education Quality Monitoring Institute of the Igor Sikorsky KPI. The teams were proposed to design a complex device for purification of Ukrainian waters in order to carry out the program on easing of ecological situation in the country.
The participants split up into 5 teams so that to solve the engineering problem. Working on the project required the knowledge of fundamental, natural and basic engineering subjects, creative work approach and unconventional thinking. The tasks for the contest were elaborated by the University scientists and the specialists from leading engineering companies.
The third round was held during the period from the 7th to 9th of June in the premises of the Igor Sikorsky KPI; the program comprised not only searching for the best engineering solutions by the participants, but the trainings on preparation of projects presentation conducted in the premises of the Sikorsky Challenge Startup school, the guided tour around the Igor Sikorsky KPI, the participants’ personal «My Engineering Future» presentations in English, communication between the Jury members and the participants when monitoring the progress of work on the projects and, certainly, defense of the projects. Talking of the Jury it should be noted that its membership comprised the highly respected and recognized subject specialists: Director of the “Boeing Ukraine” company Oleksiy Stepin, Director of the “ProgressTech Ukraine” company Andriy Fialkovsky, Director of the “Tukana Engineering Ukraine” company Myroslav Krekota, Director of the St. Volodymyr Charity Foundation Oleksandr Martynenko. The Jury was headed by the Rector of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, the academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Michael Zgurovsky.
And thus, on Saturday, June 9, the winners of the first all-Ukrainian Festival of engineering talents «Future of Ukraine‘2018» were announced in the Igor Sikorsky KPI! They are: Anastasiya Suslovets (Zhukovsky National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”), Danylo Yermolov (Zhukovsky National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”), Oleg Mitryashkin (National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”), Valeriy Napolov (Zhukovsky National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”), Igor Kaliyenko (Zhukovsky National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”), Mykyta Leonidov (Zhukovsky National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”), Bas Yevgen Viktorovych (National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”), Maksym Kabanets (National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”), Kolodiychyk Dmytro Sergiyovych (Zhukovsky National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”) and Anastasiya Litvinova (Zhukovsky National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”).
Today skilled specialists must acquire not merely certain basic knowledge and skills in their totality but know and apply them in the course of working on actual problems, as well as use unconventional creative approaches and methods, when necessary. The Festival has demonstrated that our country abounds with talented youth which is ready to solve the most complicated non-routine engineering problems of the here and now at a top professional level.
