On 28-31 October 2025, Ihor Sikorskyi Kyiv Polytechnic Institute hosted the XIV International Festival “Sikorsky Challenge 2025” – the main event of the Ukrainian innovation ecosystem. This year, three startup teams from SumDU were selected for final in the categories “Defense and Security”, “Energy Sustainability and Security, Ecology and Green Chemistry”, “Biomedical Engineering and Human Health”.

The team of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Tools and Instruments consisting of Andrii DOVHOPOLOV, Vitalii KOLESNYK and Oleksandr YEVDOKYMOV presented the project “Complex for Setting Up a Combined Smoke Curtain for Masking Vehicles”.

The project “Patobooking” by Roman MOSKALENKO, Nataliia HYRIAVENKO, Artem BONDARENKO (Department of Pathological Anatomy) and Taras SAVCHENKO (Department of Computer Science) won in the nomination “Industry Innovation”. In addition to the financial reward of 50 thousand UAH, the team received an invitation to cooperate from the partner and sponsor of the festival – the S.P. Korolov JSC “Merydian”.

The festival has already hosted the second Global Greenchem Hackathon – a platform where innovative teams are looking for environmentally safe, effective and economically profitable solutions for industry, based on the principles of “green chemistry”.

This year, participants will work on real challenges from two companies: DOW – an international manufacturer and supplier of raw materials for various industries, and ELF DECOR – a leading Ukrainian manufacturer of decorative paints and coatings.

Two teams of students from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering are participating in the Hackathon from SumDU. Active coordination and involvement of students and postgraduates in the project is carried out by Ruslan OSTROHA (head of the Department of Chemical Engineering) under whose leadership the university team won the Green Chemistry Demo Day 2025 and received funding.

The Sikorsky Challenge festival is not just an annual competition, but has become a platform for development of innovative startups in Ukraine. It includes training, mentoring sessions, meetings with experts and investors, and new partnerships.

During the forum, a presentation of the Sikorsky Challenge International Accelerator (Ukraine – Great Britain) was held. It is an effective mechanism of the Platform for Innovative Transformation of Ukraine.

SumDU has been a permanent partner of the festival since 2016. Every year the university presents its teams that demonstrate high results and win. This year, Andrii PIVEN (head of the SumDU Startup Center) was conferred an honorary award for many years of successful work in startup development.

“Currently, the SumDU Startup Center, within the Ministry of Education and Science project on development of a network of startup schools – incubators – accelerators, has already begun training new teams. There are promising ideas, we are moving to new achievements. The partner circle of possible investors, mentors and experts is also expanding,” – said Andrii PIVEN.

Such events are of great importance for further commercialization of innovative developments. Part of the costs of teams’ participation were borne by festival organizers while the rest was financed within the UNIDO GCIP grant agreement.

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