On 10 September, Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Anatoliy Melnychenko and Chairman of the Board and Head of the Ukrainian Deminers Association (UDA) Tymur Pistriuha signed a memorandum of cooperation between the university and this public organisation.
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The signing was preceded by a series of meetings and a final conversation about the directions and forms of further cooperation in many areas of organising and conducting humanitarian demining - from training specialists to work in this area to developing new equipment for the disposal of mines and explosive devices, etc. This activity is extremely relevant for our country: according to the Secretariat of the National Mine Action Authority of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, 128,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian land and 14,000 square kilometres of our water areas, where economic activity and life are potentially dangerous for 6 million Ukrainians, require humanitarian demining.
So, starting the conversation, Rector Anatoliy Melnychenko noted that Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute can play a key role not only in training specialists for humanitarian demining, but also in providing them with modern technologies. He added: ‘The issue of humanitarian demining is not a temporary project for our university, it is very serious and systematic for us. Moreover, we have established two educational programmes - a bachelor's and a master's degree in this area - and have already conducted the first enrolment... Therefore, I think our joint plans are extremely promising.’
The start of cooperation with the NGO ‘Association of Deminers of Ukraine’ is a really significant event for Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute: the results of this organisation's work already allow it to take one of the leading places among non-governmental structures of this kind. This is due to both the practical and active project activities of the Association, including those with foreign partners. And given that the university has begun training specialists in this area and implementing relevant innovative projects, the vast practical experience gained by the Association is extremely valuable in this process. This cooperation is equally important for the Association: such a partnership creates a solid foundation for the development of new demining technologies, the preparation of educational programmes and joint trainings, and ultimately builds a bridge between practitioners and the scientific and educational community. This will ultimately work towards solving the problem of demining vast areas of our country. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in addition to the rector, the meeting and negotiations with the Association's representatives were attended by Yurii Yekhanurov, Director of the Research Institute of Defence Technologies, and Andrii Shysholin, Vice-Rector for International Relations, Director of the Educational and Research Institute of Energy Saving and Energy Management Oksana Vovk, Head of the All-Ukrainian Innovation Ecosystem ‘Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine’ Inna Maliukova, Head of the Training and Innovation Centre for Prosthetics and Rehabilitation Technologies of the Institute of Postgraduate Education Nataliia Seminska and others.
Speaking to the university media, Timur Pistriuha highlighted three main and most promising areas of joint activity. The first is innovation: here, ASU representatives will act primarily as practitioners; the second is training, and training not only for students but also for veterans - for their reintegration into society and rehabilitation; the third is cooperation in mine risk education (Association instructors are already ready to conduct training sessions for students free of charge). In addition, in his opinion, cooperation in providing assistance to people affected by mines and explosive devices, their rehabilitation and reintegration into normal life can also be productive.
‘This cooperation is extremely important for us, because they are reliable partners who have experience in many important areas in the field of humanitarian demining - both in demining itself and in participating in many international projects and events,’ Oksana Vovk shared her thoughts and plans for further cooperation with the Association. - ‘So, we plan to cooperate in many areas: these include awareness-raising and educational projects, trainings, and not only on humanitarian demining, as we want to join the rehabilitation of veterans and return them to normal life through advanced training. We are also ready to start training for women leaders in humanitarian demining. We will also rely on the help of our partners as experts and full members of our international consortium - we are talking about creating a robotic system for remote disposal of explosive ordnance using innovative virtual reality and artificial intelligence technologies.’
By the way, according to Oksana Vovk, this year 12 people have been enrolled in the first year of the bachelor's degree programme in Environmental Protection Technologies, which focuses on humanitarian demining, and 10 in the master's degree programme. The number of students is limited due to the fact that this is a new speciality, so the Ministry of Education and Science has allocated a rather small number of places. It is noteworthy that people entered the master's programme from different specialities, as those who were already aware of what they were going to study were enrolled. Among the master's students are civil servants, military personnel and others. ‘These are the specialists who will be very useful to the state in the near future (and we plan to carry out international accreditation and launch a double degree programme with an American university). I hope that the knowledge and skills acquired during their studies will help them in their current activities,’ says the director of the Institute of IEE.
It should be added that before signing the joint document, the parties also discussed the launch of joint mine risk education projects to provide the necessary information in an accessible language for people of all categories, from children to the elderly. And about the participation of the Association's representatives in the relevant panels of the Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine festival of innovative projects, etc.