Associate professor of the department of ATEP (automation of heat-and-power engineering processes) Olexander Vasyljovych Stepanets’ is the winner of the contest “Young teacher-researcher 2018”. He as nobody else represents the best features of scientist-innovator: raises awareness of new educational and production technologies and helps to promote students’ engineering on the international level.
On the heat-and-power faculty Olexander Vasyljovych is a well-known person, who is honored by colleagues and rapturously responded by students that are eager to join in with common projects. O. Stepanets’ was a student of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute: in 2008 he graduated with honors in “Computer-integrated technological processes and production”, got a qualification of the Master of Science in automation and computer-integrated technologies. In 2013 took his PhD choosing the optimization of automatic control system of heat-and-power objects, as a direction of scientific activity. To the field of scientific interest belong adoptive and optimal control systems, new laws and methods of regulation, so as applied aspects of their application in industrial automation. The scientist is an author of more than 60 publications; among them there are scientific articles, methodological and teaching books, section of the monography.
O. Stepanets combines research with practical activities even from the student's years. At present, there are dozens of automated objects among his achievements: from individual heat points to the main productive assets of the plant, and even exotic, such as the installation of laboratory studies of the quality of building mixtures and the complex automation of the Orthodox cathedral. The interest in the practical aspects of a specialty requires regular improvement of professional skills. This is confirmed by the certificates of successfully completed trainings WAGO, Phoenix Contact, Wonderware, Crestron, Master SCADA.
In several years he taught and filled up training courses “Controller automation tools”, “Automation of technological processes of the industry”, “Mathematical methods of optimization”, “Applied software” with the results of scientific research. He manages the coursework, master dissertations, seminars and laboratory classes. He works on creating an “Industrial Internet of Things” course for thermal power engineering and on the training to improve engineers’ qualification in the field of Operational Technologies. Since 2018 he formed his own team of researchers, having established the scientific leadership of two postgraduate students.
Since the beginning of cooperation between the University and the German company Phoenix Contact, which has created the international educational network Edu Net for the development of engineering personnel and ideas Industry 4.0, he is the coordinator of Edu Net from our university and the head of the training laboratory. Its activity is aimed at teaching students on ultramodern industrial equipment and promotion of engineering specialties.
Periodically, Phoenix Contact is hosting an international contest for student automation projects - xplore New Automation Award. The competition is intended to reveal the creative and technical potential of future engineers, to reveal professional and leadership qualities, to give them an opportunity to declare themselves. In 2018 two student teams of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute entered the Top 100 of this competition. One of them presented his project to improve the safety of human existence in urban environment in the final of the competition in Bad Pyrmont, Germany. Ukraine has become one of 12 countries, whose representatives were invited to the grand technological holiday xplore New Automation Award. The project manager of both teams was O. Stepanets.
Currently, he is actively working on the creation of Technology Center 4.0 at the University. This center aims to unite innovators, researchers, practitioners and industrial enterprises for high-quality market research, R&D and the implementation of new advanced technologies, new joint challenges and opportunities.
The active position of the department stuff of the AETP, its colossal experience and the sequence in a quick response to modern requirements, the creative atmosphere helps to implement ambitious plans. After all, one of the features of the future Ukraine is a high-tech engineering competitive on the world stage.