Ivan Franko National University of Lviv together with Zaporizhzhya Polytechnic National University launched a large-scale project Lviv Drone Academy "DrDrone"
Modern warfare is a battle of technologies. Whoever has more of them is ahead, whoever is on a first-name basis with them is more effective, and whoever knows how to create them is the most protected. The war in Ukraine is also a war of drones, and the people who know how to design and operate them protect our soldiers without being directly on the front line. This was the impetus for the creation of the Lviv Drone Academy, a joint project of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University. The initiative included a three-day online training course in which leading industry experts shared their knowledge and experience with young people who wanted to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the development and design of drone technology. About 300 students attended the lecture part. Later, active students will also take part in practical classes, which require additional registration.
The course started with an organisational meeting, during which Vitalii Kukharskyi, Vice-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work and Informatisation of Lviv University, and Andrii Ivanchenko, Vice-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work, Socio-Economic Development and Youth Policy of Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic, welcomed the participants.
“I am really pleased to welcome everyone here, because so many young people are eager to participate, which shows a great desire to help the Armed Forces with their knowledge and skills. In the first year of the full-scale invasion, many of us hoped that the technology provided by our foreign partners would be enough to resist the enemy, but today we see that more and more often our guys and girls from the Armed Forces of Ukraine are using Ukrainian-made devices to help and even save their lives. Many drone-related initiatives have been launched in our country recently, but we believe that the Lviv Drone Academy is unique in that it has managed to go beyond the academic communities of universities and involve leading IT companies and the military, who work directly with drones, in the project. I sincerely believe that the most diligent participants will put all the knowledge they have gained into practice and will soon be able to help manufacture and test drones in their spare time to save many lives on the front line," said Vitalii Kukharskyi, Vice-Rector of Lviv University.
"Zaporizhzhia is geographically very close to the frontline, so this topic is particularly relevant for our region. Also, day after day, the entire territory of Ukraine suffers from enemy attacks, and we are aware that even in the near future our neighbour-aggressor will not go anywhere. We are sincerely grateful to Lviv University for the invitation to partner and are convinced that we will be able to offer our expertise, as the aviation industry is not new to us. Unmanned technologies and control systems that allow us to defeat the enemy without losing human lives are exactly what our educational rear and our students should focus on. I would like to thank the Armed Forces of Ukraine, thanks to which we have the opportunity to work with students and our partners to develop our Ukraine. Special thanks also to those commercial enterprises that have partnered with us and are ready to share their materials and best practices. I think that the cooperation of business, education and youth will give the result that the Lviv Drone Academy "DrDrone" initially set out to achieve," shared his thoughts Andrii Ivanchenko, Vice-Rector of the National University "Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic".
As part of the introductory part, the moderator also introduced the rules of the school and provided information on communication, use of the educational platform, and actions in case of an air raid.
Olena, a student of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, shared her impressions of the training: "For a long time, drones have been a subject of entertainment. They were used for filming, racing and various adventures, but now the word 'drone' has acquired a different meaning for Ukrainians. It is associated with war. There are hundreds of types of drones, and each of them has a different purpose. Some are just observing, others are striking. However, the frontline still needs new and improved models, which take a long time to develop and test. I believe that this training gives us the opportunity to understand how these devices function, how they are programmed, and how they can be assembled by ourselves. There are so many areas to study: from aerodynamics to creating your own software. Students don't always have the opportunity to help the army with large donations, but we can contribute (albeit in a small way) to the creation of UAVs that will save the lives of soldiers."
It is worth noting that this important project was implemented by the Centre for Marketing and Development of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and the Department of System Design of the Faculty of Electronics and Computer Technologies of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, in particular the guarantor of the High Performance Computing educational programme at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, together with Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Lviv Regional Military Administration, IRON. Lviv Tech Cluster, the Advanced Materials Technology Cluster, IT companies Sigma Software, SoftServe, Infopulse, N-iX, Vakoms, Indeema, Victory Drones, Ozhiga Design Bureau, Lviv IT Cluster, Marketer, leading industry experts and, of course, the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
We are convinced that our school will become an impetus, motivation and key for young people to understand the world of drones in more detail. We believe that the students will put all their knowledge into practice and in the near future will help our military with new, improved models of drone technology that will work on the ground and in the air for our cherished Victory. Glory to Ukraine!