For three days, Svit journalists attended the 10th anniversary “Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine 2021: Ukraine and the World” Festival; they took part in the International Defense Investment Forum, were present at the panel discussion on Ukraine’s opportunities for innovative breakthrough in industrial high-tech and space, listened to presentations and looked at the exhibitions of investment projects in the “Defense and Security”, “Industrial High-Tech and Space”, “Green Energy, Hydrogen Economy, Ecology”, “Biometric Engineering and Human Health”, “Agricultural Engineering” and “Information Technologies , Digital Country, Cybersecurity” sections. There are enough materials for the whole “Newspaper in the newspaper: special issue”. In addition to the first page of this issue, which is presented below, we present three multifarious reports by Svit correspondents.
This is the question that the organizers and participants of the Festival tried to answer:
HOW TO WORK THE WAY FROM STARTUP TO INNOVATIVE UKRAINE?
The anniversary “Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine 2021: Ukraine and the World” Festival, which took place on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence, and was dedicated to this important event, not only discovered new talents and new ideas, named the best startups, and created opportunities for projects implementation owing to investors, but also expedited a turning point in the development of Ukraine, which can be named the return of the engineering era. But this return takes place in the modern high-tech spiral of world history, when the engineering idea is supported by information technology, artificial intelligence, bioengineering and so on, that emerge today.
SIKORSKY FAMILY IS THE WHOLE UKRAINE. AND NOT ONLY
It is quite logical that this movement was impressively exhibited in Kyiv Polytechnic, where it was captured and embodied for the first time in Ukraine more than ten years ago, when the Sikorsky Challenge Festival was launched. After all, for a century, some of the best European and world scientists, whose names are known all over the world, have studied, taught and created advanced engineering schools here! Many people have spoken about this at the opening of the Festival.
“The University is the center of unity of scientists, students, business, government agencies, innovators, startups”, said the KPI graduate, Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Shkarlet. “That’s why the main thing is to live with a purpose, to move forward, creating new horizons for oneself and the State!”
Vic Korsun, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine (this time he participated remotely from Philadelphia) stressed that in the ten years since the first competition, about two dozen Ukrainian universities have introduced programs for gifted developers in order to teach them to become entrepreneurs. In particular, he was impressed by the scale of innovation processes implementation in the East of Ukraine, near the separation line.
“It is the defense that should become the driver of innovations and new technologies,” said Yuriy Gusev, head of the Ukroboronprom concern, welcoming the Festival participants. The People’s Deputy of Ukraine, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Andriy Nikolayenko stated that the time is coming when being an engineer is stylishly, prestigious and economically profitable! He is convinced that the synergy of the University – business – State, the experience of the Sikorsky Challenge will contribute to it in the best way.
The ideologist and founder of the Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine ecosystem, Rector of NTUU “Igor Sikorsky KPI”, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences Michael Zgurovsky spoke about the mission of the large University in the country, which is meant not only to teach, conduct research and implement innovations, but also to promote the transition to high-tech development of the whole Ukraine. He stressed that the University has centennial scientific traditions of creating a high innovation culture, and the innovation component in today’s educational programs exceeds 30%. 74 KPI scientific schools are widely known and recognized in the world, the University annually proposes more than 150 engineering ideas, each of which can become a startup. Therefore, with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On the “Kyiv Polytechnic” Science Park”, KPI actually became a pilot project for high-tech development throughout Ukraine.
Today, Sikorsky Challenge startup-schools exist in 19 regions on the basis of 23 Ukrainian universities. Locally, innovative clusters are founded with the participation of representatives of public authorities and local communities. SCU startup-schools and representative offices are opened in the USA, China, Israel, Poland, and Azerbaijan. The representative of Azerbaijan, the Rector of the Baku State University of Oil and Industry (and the KPI graduate of 1989) Mustafa Babanli personally came at the anniversary Festival.
Co-founder and head of the SCU startup-school Inna Malyukova presented the “closest family” of the Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine innovative ecosystem: startup-school leaders (the first startup school was founded on the basis of Vinnytsia National Technical University, then in Mariupol, on the basis of Priazovsky State Technical University). Then there was a kind of roll call. Leaders of these structures, universities, cities – Kramatorsk, Poltava, Kryvyi Rih, Kherson and Luhansk regions conveyed warm words of congratulations and gratitude online and offline on behalf of their startup-schools and innovation clusters…
Live broadcast took place with Silicon Valley.
… Presentations, discussions, debates… For three days our journalists together with the participants lived in this innovative environment, among a unique assemblage of gifted persons, innovators, transformers capable to innovatively change the world. And without a doubt – to change the country.
After all, as a co-founder and senior coach of SCU (Israel) Igor Peer said, the goal is not to clone the success of startups. The goal is to build the innovative Ukraine.
Larysa OSTROLUTSKA