The leaders of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and a number of its subdivisions held negotiations on expanding cooperation with educational and research institutions and research centers of the Czech Republic with members of the representative delegation of this country.
The delegation of guests, which visited the university on April 1, was headed by the Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Health of the Czech Republic Vlastimil Válek, and included top officials of the country's government authorities, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Department of International Affairs and the European Union, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to Ukraine Radek Pech and embassy staff, as well as the Director General of the Czech Institute of Health Technology Marek Svoboda and others.
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The meeting was extremely warm. The fact that the Rector of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Anatoliy Melnychenko, addressed the guests in Czech contributed to this friendly atmosphere. Then he switched to Ukrainian and emphasized that the Czech Republic, during the terrible war that is raging in Ukraine, demonstrates true solidarity and helps our country and its citizens in the humanitarian, medical and technological dimensions. The rector also emphasized that there is a significant potential for the implementation of joint scientific and educational projects aimed at the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, and assured: “Our scientists are ready to work together with Czech colleagues to develop new technologies that will help restore critical infrastructure, develop medicine, and introduce innovations in healthcare.”
“I am extremely pleased to be back in the academic field,” said Vlastimil Valek, who, as it turned out, had worked at Masaryk University for many years and even headed its Academic Board. He also mentioned that he is a radiologist by profession, so he is directly related not only to medicine but also to technical fields. So, the further conversation concerned joint Czech-Ukrainian research projects in various fields, primarily in biomedical engineering and artificial intelligence research, and he promised to provide them with maximum assistance.
Vice-Rector for International Relations Andriy Shysholin told the guests about Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, its institutes and faculties, scientific infrastructure, partners and research, as well as cooperation with Czech scientists. By the way, this cooperation has a deep history, and after Ukraine gained independence, it intensified in 1998: the first step was the signing of an agreement on scientific and cultural cooperation with the Technical University of Brno. Nowadays, KPI's partners in the Czech Republic are seven other Czech universities and research institutions: Masaryk University (Brno), Institute of Modern History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague, University of West Bohemia in Plzeň, Tomas Bati University in Zlin and the oldest higher education institution in the Czech Republic - Charles University in Prague. Andrii Shysholin also recalled the joint projects and cooperation between Kyiv Polytechnics and Czech universities, including within the framework of academic mobility.
Given the composition of the delegation, the conversation was primarily about cooperation in the field of life sciences research and the joint development of relevant technologies. And not about launching joint projects in this area, but about expanding their range. In fact, the university staff has been working in partnership with Czech colleagues on these issues for years. Oleksandr Galkin, Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, told the delegation about specific work in this area. He also introduced the guests to the departments of the faculty, the research topics they conduct, and the projects they have implemented, as well as the activities of the university's Additive Technologies Science Park, which focuses on the problems of engineering support for prosthetics and rehabilitation of people who have been injured and lost their health due to the war.
"The meeting was related to the development of our cooperation in the field of medical engineering. It is important that our university has powerful developments in this field,“ Anatoliy Melnychenko summarized the visit of Czech officials, ”We have a faculty of biomedical engineering, but other faculties are also involved in the development of these technologies. In addition, we have a science park, which is active in this area. Therefore, today we have reached agreements to strengthen and develop our cooperation with those universities with which we already had agreements, as well as to conclude new agreements with universities and academic institutes of the Czech Republic and enterprises and organizations working in the healthcare sector." Other very important issues discussed, according to the rector, included - and the possibility of concluding agreements with Czech universities on the introduction of double degree programs, as well as intensifying academic mobility for both students and faculty.
At the meeting with the delegation of of the Czech Republic, headed by Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Health Vlastimíl Valek, future joint projects in the field of biomedical engineering were discussed:
creation of rehabilitation centers;
introduction of digital technologies to improve the quality of medical services;
programs on biosecurity and biosafety.
Our university is ready to implement these crucial initiatives for Ukraine, because it has powerful developments and the appropriate base - the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, science parks.
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute's cooperation with the Czech Republic has been going on for a long time: we have seven partner universities and successful joint educational and research projects.
Now the cooperation will be expanded to include
- creation of modern medical centers for prosthetics and rehabilitation;
- the number of exchange programs for students and teachers with leading Czech universities as part of academic mobility.
You can watch the meeting with Czech colleagues in the video.
