The International Festival of Innovative Projects ‘Sikorsky Challenge’, which has been held at the university since 2012, annually reveals new names and presents the latest products and technologies. In particular, in the final of the XI Festival ‘Sikorsky Challenge: Innovative Transformation of Ukraine’, the jury awarded the project “Circulatory and Acoustic Extractor”, which received the international GIST Support Funding award under the US Department of State's Global Innovation through Science and Technology Programme. The presented laboratory model of the equipment (which, by the way, has received titles of protection) made it possible to intensify the process of extraction and full extraction of biologically active substances from plant material. ‘The significant advantages of the technology - an increase in the amount of extract, a decrease in the process temperature and a reduction in energy costs - will be appreciated by manufacturers in the pharmaceutical industry (a line for the production of extracts from medicinal plants), the biotechnology industry (a line for the production of meal for biofuel) or the food industry (a line for the production of vegetable oil),’ says Zhanna Ostapenko, the author of the development, senior lecturer at the Department of Biotechnology and Engineering of the FBT.
She is one of a cohort of engineers educated by Kyiv Polytechnic, who, according to KPI Rector Anatoliy Melnychenko, ‘should create, design, be inventors and innovators.’ Although the scientist's Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute experience is not very long: in 2013 she entered the Department of Biotechnology and Engineering of the FBT, in 2017 she received a bachelor's degree in 133 ‘Industrial Engineering’, in 2019 - a master's degree with honours, from September 2019 to December 2022 she worked at the Department of Biotechnology and Engineering as an assistant, and from January 2023 - as a senior lecturer, the researcher has significant achievements. While studying for her PhD, she is actively engaged in scientific work, has received several utility model patents of Ukraine, has publications in professional journals and in journals indexed by Scopus, and participates in national and international scientific conferences.
In general, the main areas of Zhanna Ostapenko's scientific work are ultrasonic technologies for the extraction of biologically active substances, heat and mass transfer processes, and purification processes. Therefore, the researcher is currently working on the study of the effect of ultrasonic radiation on the extraction of biologically active substances from plant materials.