According to Waldemar Siwinski (pictured left), Founder of the Poland’s Perspektywy Education Foundation, this was the first conference in his life that he opened in an air raid shelter. The event took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 19-20, 2024. The theme of the conference was “Driving Economic Recovery: Scaling Digital Education Experiences in Higher Education Institutions”.
The shelter was built in the underground warehouses of the central library at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI). It accommodates up to 600 people.
KPI students came up with the idea of converting the library’s underground space to survive wartime exigencies, proposing a “double-purpose” approach – so that, even during air raid alerts, it could be used for teaching and/or conferences. The KPI administration considered it a good idea and managed to secure modest, but sufficient, funding for the project. Overall, the shelters on KPI’s campus, though not elegant, are robust enough to accommodate 10,000 people at a time. Without these shelters, it would be impossible to conduct offline classes and educate skilled engineers.
The conference in Kyiv was part of the Erasmus+ project “Incubating Freedom – Building IT Competence among Ukrainian War Refugees Residing in EU Countries” (IFU) carried out in the course of a year by an international consortium, led by Perspektywy, with partners including University of Gdansk (Poland), KPI (Ukraine), ELTE University of Budapest (Hungary), and Tomas Bata University in Zlin (Czech Republic).
However, what made Mr. Siwinski’s decision to travel to Kyiv even more significant – despite the concerns of his family and friends about the risks – was his desire to meet Prof. Anatolii Melnychenko (pictured right) in person. Elected two months ago through democratic elections, Professor Melnychenko now serves as Rector of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute – the best technical university of Ukraine.
Fifteen years ago, Perspektywy and KPI co-founded the Ukrainian-Polish Center, which has since remained active in promoting collaboration. The two partners have undertaken many initiatives – ranging from conferences and sports competitions to study visits in both countries. “I am glad that the new rector of the world-famous KPI intends to continue and expand Polish-Ukrainian cooperation,” stated Waldemar Siwinski.