Humanitarian demining is extremely important for our country. The work on clearing vast areas of mines and all kinds of explosive debris, which is already underway and will reach a huge scale after the war is over, requires, firstly, human resources, secondly, a significant amount of special equipment, and thirdly, constant improvement of demining technologies and their implementation. And all of these “first,” “second,” and “third” have recently been directly related to Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
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The university began to deal closely with the problems of mine action a little over a year ago, when the Educational and Research Institute of Energy Saving and Energy Management established the Educational and Research Center for Innovative Technologies in Humanitarian Demining. And today Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute has already become one of the leading educational and scientific centers for the development of this new industry in the capital region, and possibly in the whole country.
“The issue of humanitarian demining is not a temporary project for our university, it is very serious and systematic for us,” said Anatoliy Melnychenko, rector of the university, at the ceremony of signing a memorandum of cooperation with the Association of Deminers of Ukraine last September. And these are not empty words - they are backed up by real actions.
The Institute of Environmental Engineering is already preparing bachelors and masters within the Environmental Protection Technologies educational program, which focuses on humanitarian demining (note that the master's program is attended by people who clearly understand what they will study and why - military, civil servants and other specialists who already have experience in the relevant fields). The KPI is also implementing the Humanitarian Demining training program for veterans in cooperation with the Kyiv Regional Employment Center, whose partners and co-organizers include the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the State Labor Service of Ukraine, the State Employment Service, and the Ukrainian National Association for Humanitarian Demining. And the aforementioned Center for Innovative Technologies in Humanitarian Demining is the center for the development of new equipment, the introduction of relevant innovative technologies, and outreach in this area, etc. By the way, our newspaper has already written about one of the developments created with the support of the Center - the Impactor project and its authors from the Geotron student group (see Kyiv Polytechnic, February 21, 2025, No. 7-8).
However, not only developers, but also domestic and foreign organizations working in this field are now gathering around the Center for Innovative Technologies in Humanitarian Demining of the Institute of IEE. One of them is the Public Union “Demining Cluster of Ukraine”, a memorandum with which the university signed on February 27. The document was signed by KPI Rector Anatoliy Melnychenko and Chairman of the Board of the Union Maksym Tkachenko.
The memorandum identifies the main areas of cooperation, including the exchange of information on the educational process under the demining program, assistance in the development of distance educational technologies, joint information, scientific and educational activities in the field of mine safety, assistance in the implementation of scientific projects, assistance in organizing pilot projects and technological solutions, testing and expert evaluation of innovative products in the field of mine action and demining, and several others.
Oksana Vovk, Director of the ER IEE, commented on the event as follows: “The Ukrainian Demining Cluster is a powerful public organization that brings together mine action operators and a number of foreign companies and foundations. This is very important for us, because being engaged in both the educational process and project activities, the university, of course, needs some additional funding for our projects. A year ago, we established the Educational and Research Center for Innovative Technologies in Humanitarian Demining. And it was around the center that we gathered a large number of partners: both grantors and businesses. Today, we have already moved from signing memorandums and declarative things to the practical plane.”
It is worth noting that the negotiations on establishing cooperation in the field of humanitarian demining and mine action held on February 27 were not the first this year. Of course, their participants were different.
In January, the university signed a similar memorandum with the Ukrainian Association of Humanitarian Demining, a non-governmental organization that unites almost all mine action operators in our country, as well as manufacturers and other organizations involved in this field.
On February 21, the delegation of the United Nations Development Program visited Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and held talks on cooperation and the launch of joint projects in the field of humanitarian demining and mine action.
On February 25, the KPI management held talks with representatives of the American company Safe Pro Group. They also identified possible areas of joint work. In particular, joint research; implementation of advanced technologies in the training of students who receive higher education in the educational program “Environmental Protection Technologies and Humanitarian Demining”, including the application based on artificial intelligence Safe Pro Ukraine Spotlight AI for the rapid detection of mines and explosive devices, as well as monitoring and assessing the degree of contamination of the territory; introduction of new technologies for soil treatment and land reclamation to restore the agricultural sector of our country.
Therefore, the number of university partners in the work on scientific, educational and organizational support of mine action is constantly growing. The need for this is obvious, because everyone knows that it is more effective to work together.