Ukrainian Students Build Their First Success Stories at IT-Eureka

On May 20^th, students from leading Ukrainian technical universities gathered at the finals of the innovation projects contest IT-Eureka in Lviv, where 10 out of 207 teams competed for the name of the most innovative student project 2016. For the second year in a row Sigma was a general partner of the event and from now on will become its main driver and organizer in Ukraine.

The IT-Eureka! Ukraine contest aims to develop entrepreneurship and innovation among IT students. The competition is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, leading tech universities and businesses, and is a part of the TEMPUS project NEFESIE (National Education Framework for Enhancing IT Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship).

Sigma was a partner of the contest and TEMPUS project from the very beginning, when the program got support and financing from the European Commission back in 2012. The goal of NEFESIE is to strengthen cooperation between educational institutions, research institutes, and business in Ukraine. Among the project partners are Sigma, IKEA, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Linnaeus University (Sweden), Dublin City University (Ireland), Oxford Brookes University (UK), Pedro Nunes Institute (Portugal), and five Ukrainian universities.

“Together with TEMPUS partners we conducted a whole multitude of educational projects, courses, and seminars aimed to streamline the Ukrainian higher education system and create a favorable ecosystem for students to innovate and create their first startup projects. Ukrainian students spent several weeks in Sweden and Portugal to get knowledge and inspiration for their innovative ideas; before that they worked on a joint project with Linnaeus University students, where they developed a system for a leading Swedish company,” says Niklas Malmros, President at Sigma Technology Solutions. “We see a significant value in supporting talent and innovation in Ukraine. We offer nearshore services and remote delivery from Ukraine to our clients for many years. The key factor for them in choosing us as a partner is our broad competence and knowledge. We call it the Center of Excellence.”

IT-Eureka competition, which was first introduced in 2015 and then continued in 2016, proves that the TEMPUS program has created a positive impact. Over 600 innovative projects and 1500 students participated in the competition in 2015 and 2016.

The winners of this year are Cut and Dry project by the students of Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University (1st place), CCLIPSE project from Vinnytsia National Technical University (2nd place), and Taryfikator project from Lviv Polytechnic National University.

The champion team members presented their idea of a tablet computer for people with special needs. This device is assumed to display images as relief objects. It would also be able to recognize voice, perform voice search, store a large number of images, and convert pictures from Internet.

CCLIPSE is a concept of a software and hardware complex designed for people with cardiovascular diseases and patients bedridden due to spinal injuries, stroke, heart attacks, and more. With the help of microchips, a patient’s cardiovascular system is supposed to be continuously monitored. The complex would be able to count the number of heartbeats, the level of the oxygen in blood, body temperature, etc.

The 3rd winner is the Tarifikator team. The students have developed a mobile app that helps users choose the most convenient mobile subscription package. The system analyses user’s calls (incoming and outgoing), determines Internet traffic volumes, compares the subscription packages from different mobile operators, and gives recommendations on the most cost-effective rates for the user.

By tradition, Sigma provided the winners with an opportunity to attend the biggest Ukrainian innovation conference IT-Arena 2016 and present their daring ideas at the Startup Alley.

“Such events illustrate the great potential of Ukraine as a country of talented and innovative people. The jury and companies-partners were sincerely surprised with the level of projects participating in the contest. The students showed themselves as creative and single-minded thinkers,” says Valery Krasovsky, CEO at Sigma Software. “Our company puts a great focus on development of IT education in Ukraine. Together with educational institutions, we have developed training programs, courses, and internships to support IT students. From now on we will also be the driver of the biggest innovation contest in the country that hopefully will help many of the students build their first business cases. For us as a company it is one more opportunity to improve the educational system and, of course, find new talents.”

For more information, please contact:

Niklas Malmros Niklas.malmros@sigmatechnology.se