Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab, an engineering program of KAI and MIT, which was previously launched in Kyiv, has been launched in Lviv. Participants will be able to go from idea to working prototype in 10 weeks under the guidance of experienced mentors.
Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab, an engineering program of KAI and MIT, which was previously launched in Kyiv, has been launched in Lviv. Participants will be able to go from idea to working prototype in 10 weeks under the guidance of experienced mentors.
This was reported by the press service of the Kyiv Aviation Institute (KAI).
Students, graduates of technical specialties, engineers, and veterans can join the program.
Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab is built on the principle of learning by doing. Participants will team up and tackle real engineering problems that Ukrainian technology companies face. Over 10 weeks, they will need to research the problem, come up with possible solutions, design a prototype, build it, and test whether it works in practice.
And partner companies will share their experience, help test ideas, and engage their engineers as mentors. Program partners include Skyfall, Sine Engineering, Warbirds, Frontline Robotics, and NDA Recruitment.
The program is based on a course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which was adapted to Ukrainian conditions. The idea to transfer this approach to Ukraine came from the vice-rector of the KAI, Radmila Segol, who spent half a year at MIT and personally took the course. According to Segol, Ukraine became the first country where this course was adapted outside of MIT.
In February 2027, participants from Kyiv and Lviv are scheduled to meet at the final Demo Day to showcase the results of their 10 weeks of work. The most promising prototypes will have a chance to be further refined and implemented with technology companies.
For the participants themselves, it is also an opportunity to add real projects to their portfolio and meet potential employers. As NDA Recruitment explains, many companies do not have the resources to train newcomers for a long time. Therefore, such programs can help future engineers gain practical skills before employment.
Earlier, dev.ua wrote that on October 9, Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab opened in Kyiv’s UNIT.City. 80 participants were selected for the first round from over a hundred applicants. Ukrainian MilTech companies prepared tasks for them that they had not yet been able to handle on their own. But the organizers decided not to reveal which company was behind each task, so that participants would choose projects based on the interest in the technical problem, and not on brand awareness.
