Sci-Tech Innovation Day was a full-day start-up fair that took place on June 22, 2021, organized by the Kharkiv YM Section in collaboration with the Student scientific society of the School of physics of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. It aimed at strengthening ties between Kharkiv academic institutions (universities, research institutes) and the Kharkiv industry (IT companies, commercial technology organizations). The event had a mixed format, namely, local participants could attend it in person at Karazin Student`s Hall (with adherence to quarantine regulations), while other participants joined our event online using zoom-platform and presented their projects online too. The web page and Telegram channel were created for communication with the participants.

The event created a platform for the presentation of technological developments of students/young scientists and the acquaintance of interested enterprises and companies with them. Apart from Young Minds, several IT companies (NIX solutions, Kharkiv IT Cluster), as well as scientific societies (IEEE, SPIE, {iaps}) have supported the event. Our Sci-Tech Innovation Day had three main scheduled parts: presentations of innovation projects (start-ups), the master class on pitching (lecture and practice), and evening lectures on the scientific grants and Ukrainian funds. Participants could join either as a presenter or as a listener. The main topics that were covered at the event were robotics and technical developments, augmented reality technologies, 3D printing in science, proceedings in conducting physical demonstrations for online education. The highlight of the day was a 3-hour master class on pitching which we believe was extremely important for young researchers. The theoretical part of the master class covered the description of the main types of business presentations. Then in the practical part, the lecturer gave a chance to all the participants to practice several types of pitches. In the final part of the master class, 10 participants made a pitch presentation and showed their idea to the audience. The best presentations got nice prizes. The participants from other cities received prizes by post.

In the end, we received positive feedback from the participants and think about organizing such an event again.

Webpage of the event: https://sites.google.com/view/stid2021

Image credit: Anastasiia Guzenko