The team of the startup «ProstoEDU», which was developed by Hanna Zavolodko, associate professor of the department of information systems of NTU «KhPI», and Valeriy Zavolodko, a graduate of the same department, has reached the final of the Lab2Market UA new for Ukraine entrepreneurial program. The Polytechnic’s project is aimed at gaining knowledge of IT students through practical experience of modern cases. In 180 hours of training, the «ProstoEDU» team prepares specialists to make an informed choice of their first job. Eight teams from the universities of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lutsk, Vinnytsia, Dnipro, and Kharkiv took part in the startup competition finals. The competition was organized by the Ukrainian national office of intellectual property and innovations «IP Office».
The startup «ProstoEDU», created by Hanna Zavolodko, associate professor of department of information systems of NTU «KhPI», and Valeriy Zavolodko, a graduate of the same department, has entered the TOP-10 of the final of the Ukrainian entrepreneurial program Lab2Market UA. «ProstoEDU» at NTU «KhPI» is a virtual research laboratory that allows students to develop modern IT solutions while learning. Unlike the traditional academic approach, the program is able to develop motivated and confident professionals ready to make informed choices about their first job in just 180 hours of practical training. Practical mentors and teachers transform students’ fundamental knowledge into practical skills. Students work together in small groups to improve the soft skills needed to find their first job in the IT sector. Together, these components make it possible to flexibly adapt education to the technologies that will appear on the IT market. Currently, more than half of the students receiving IT education lack practical experience. The lab will fill this gap by providing them with real-world experience in practical, up-to-date cases. Currently, the result of the work is the adaptive website ProstoEDU, which allows access to modern non-formal education platforms through a user-friendly interface, requiring only a user profile. We should note that this year, the project team took an entrepreneurship course from American specialists, organized by the «Spark» Startup Center at NTU «KhPI».
The competition of innovative projects was held within the framework of the IP&I forScience and Business event, where the topics of synergy between science and business, development of innovations and commercialization of intellectual property rights were discussed. The platform was organized by the Ukrainian national office of intellectual property and innovations «IP Office».
As the event organizers noted, the competition has become a great opportunity for teams to demonstrate their innovative solutions in a pitching format and attract the attention of potential investors and partners. All finalist teams will have further support from the «IP Office».
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The main goal of the Lab2Market UA program is to help researchers, inventors, and scientists to obtain the knowledge necessary to successfully commercialize their research results and bring them to market. The program included 8 weeks of intensive training for startup developers, which included lectures, mentoring sessions, and group discussions. Participants received key knowledge and skills necessary for an effective transfer from the laboratory to the market.