As Kyiv Polytechnic previously reported, at the end of the XIV Festival of Innovative Projects “Sikorsky Challenge 2025,” in accordance with its program and within the framework of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization's project “Global Innovation and Networking Program in Green Chemistry” (GreenChem), the Global Greenchem Hackathon 2025 was held from October 31 to November 2.
The program was implemented as part of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization's (UNIDO) global GreenChem initiative with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Yale University (USA) was the international implementer, and the Center for Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production was the national partner. Vitaliy Klochko, the head of the hackathon, shared information about the hackathon and the winning team with KP.
The goal of the hackathon was to find opportunities to replace traditional petrochemical substances in the production of industrial materials and alternative functional additives of natural origin for use in the production of building materials.
More than ten teams of scientists, researchers, and students from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Sumy, Lviv, and Khmelnytskyi worked on developing innovative solutions at the request of DOW (USA) and VKF MBA (ELF DECOR) (Ukraine). Over the course of three days, the teams not only developed their own ideas for completing the tasks, but also attended a lecture by Alexander Khokhotva, an expert in chemical management at the Center for Resource-Efficient and Clean Production, entitled “Fundamentals of Green Chemistry: How to Develop Safe Products.” Team members also took part in a workshop entitled “The Theory of Solving Inventive Problems” by Kateryna Vershynina and Andriy Salamov, co-owners of the creative agency 4Press and business intelligence company GreenDuck.
The victory and a check for $1,500 went to our team, Synergy 404, from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Biotechnics at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The team consisted of fourth-year students from the Department of Industrial Biotechnology and Biopharmacy: Yulia Gorbacheva, Maria Dolbeshchenkova, and Alexandra Sapitash. I was their supervisor. We proposed a technology for developing water-dispersible latex based on terpene monomers obtained through biosynthesis.
I would like to note that this is the second time that a team from our department has participated in the Global Greenchem Hackathon. In addition to teaching, I am responsible for the scientific work of the department and hold the position of senior researcher in the Department of Physiology and Systematics of Microfungi at the D.K. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The fruitful scientific cooperation between the FBT and this institute allowed our team to offer well-founded and balanced solutions.
In my opinion and in the opinion of all members of the Synergy 404 team, participation in such events is quite useful, as students can apply the theoretical knowledge they have gained at university to solve real problems or create prototypes of innovative solutions, and have a unique opportunity to meet and communicate with like-minded peers, teachers, mentors, industry representatives, and potential employers. And in the future, young hackathon participants will be able to add a notable item to their resumes. Thus, scientific hackathons are not just competitions, but a powerful educational platform that prepares students to work in the challenging environment of the modern technological world.