Uzhhorod National University held the first contest of innovative ideas
Students, post-graduate students and young scientists of the faculties of physics, mathematics, biology, medicine, dentistry, geography, philology, tourism and international communications and information technologies volunteered to participate in the contest announced on the eve of the Day of Science. In total 19 projects were presented, 13 of them reached the finals.
"The main goal of the competition is stimulation of entrepreneurship among students and transformation of students’ research ideas to finished products with their subsequent commercialization, - says vice-rector of UzhNU Ihor Studenyak. - A number of original ideas were presented to the jury. Their implementation is aimed at preserving the ecosphere and the development of "smart cities", improvement of environment, development of security systems for buildings, applications to modern devices and innovations in medicine".
Proposed projects can be divided into three thematic groups. The first group of projects is aimed at conservation and sustainable use of environment, greening urban areas. The responsibility for practical implementation of these projects, according to the jury, should be assumed by the municipal government of Uzhhorod.
The second group comprises the projects involving the development of alternative energy sources, reclamation of areas attached to pipelines and roads and abandoned lands, creation of tourism information platform in Transcarpathia, which is the responsibility of regional authorities and is financed by the regional programmes.
The third group consists of experimental developments of student research laboratory «Bitrate». Their implementation is the responsibility of the university and they can be easily commercialized. These include manufacturing of highly intellectual and available to public inexpensive sensors based on existing networks, devices for point-extinguishing of fire sources in premises, solutions to improve energy efficiency solar panels, etc.
"University environment never lacks innovative ideas. The biggest problem is always the lack of funds for their practical implementation, - says the rector of Uzhhorod National University professor Volodymyr Smolanka. - In this regard, we are holding a competition of student startups in the hope that the projects considered today will attract interest of representatives of government, business and banking invited by us to the jury".
Having heard thirteen presentations, the jury decided in favour of the two projects developed by the representatives of the faculty of physics - namely, the team supervised by Yuriy Pal from the department of applied physics for the development of intelligent sensors, and the team of Tetiana Fedelesh representing the same department for the development of the device of point-extinguishing fires in premises.
