Graduate Perspectives

On the opportunities in automation

This field spans a remarkable range of knowledge, from thermodynamics and physics to programming adaptive control algorithms and modelling digital twins. Algorithms used to automate nuclear reactors can also be applied in other industries. With technology advancing rapidly and smart devices becoming more widespread, automation and software specialists have enormous scope to develop their ideas—in manufacturing, programming, modelling or artificial intelligence.

More and more devices are autonomous, adaptive and connected through Internet of Things solutions. Developing them calls for highly skilled specialists, and there is a considerable shortage of people with that level of expertise.

On university life

For me, KPI is more than a university with outstanding teachers and modern technology. It is a place where people can discover their abilities and develop their talents and ideas. My advice to students is to make the most of the chance to learn from people who have devoted their lives to science and technology and want to contribute to Ukraine’s intellectual development.

Ask yourself what inspires and interests you, then build a project, a team or even a hobby group around it. Aim to know your subject well. Think big, dream big and keep moving forward. The knowledge you gain can open the way to an interesting and rewarding life, wherever you choose to live and work. Our specialists work around the world and can compete with graduates of leading technical universities.

On studying at the department

Studying here helped me understand myself and discover what inspires me. It helped me find interesting work and opened up new possibilities in technology. The knowledge I gained is the foundation on which I build skills in new technologies. It is also a shared language that helps me work with specialists from other disciplines.

The curriculum brings together important aspects of engineering and research. Modelling processes and developing digital twins require physics, thermodynamics, chemistry and mechanics, as well as the ability to solve systems of differential equations. Analysing and building models for advanced control systems calls for system identification, optimisation, statistics and probability. Proficiency in programming languages is also one of the most valuable skills in today’s world.

A digital twin is a virtual representation of a real object or process, used to understand, control and improve it. Operational technology specialists connect that virtual representation with the physical world.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

In my work in the field, I regularly used the distinctive knowledge I had gained at the Department of Automation of Thermal Power Processes (ATEP)—a rare experience in my view. My studies also taught me to solve problems, face difficulties with resilience, and value my friends and team. I believe this kind of education and experience is valuable to everyone, and I am glad I received it.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

We are Anastasia Kostrub (Tereshchuk) and Dmitry Kostrub. You can find more about our work at kostrub.online.

During our studies at ATEP, we discovered the world of automation and gained a basic understanding of how technological processes work. That foundation is useful in developing, configuring and launching software. Most of all, the department taught us how to learn, which we consider essential to reaching any professional goal. It helped us build careers in Ukraine and abroad, including in the United States and Germany.

At the time of the account, we both worked in IT. I, Anastasia, was a Product Manager at the German company Verimi, where I worked with a team developing identification and authentication systems for enterprise customers. Dmitry was a development Tech Lead at the American company Amazon, working on cloud solutions.

Dmitry’s advice to the department is to give students, especially those in their final years, more freedom and room to grow while they work and develop their own projects. Offer support and guidance: that collaboration can lead to outstanding achievements.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

I graduated from ATEP two years ago, already working as a programmer. Here are a few things I took from the department:

• The education is broad. While working on my own project, I realised that neural networks connect with ideas from some of the courses we studied. I still return to the theory and put it into practice.
• Many instructors work in the fields they teach. Your first employer might lecture on object-oriented programming one day and, the next, you might be working on a project at that employer’s company.
• There are interesting opportunities. With my team, I presented our Besanabar project in Germany as part of the Xplore New Automation Award.
• At the time of this account, the circuit diagram for a new Arduino device I designed is on my board; the device itself is on the table beside me, waiting for refinement.

The main thing is to make the most of what the department offers.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

Nothing seems more planned than what happens by chance. I came to the Department of Automation of Thermal Power Processes by chance, and I am grateful that I did.

What I valued at the department was its focus on practical engineering skills: working with real equipment and applied software. The laboratories were well equipped and gave us the chance to use that equipment. Many instructors were engineers through and through, and several took part in real automatic-control projects, so students learned from people with current practical experience. They wanted to teach us, not simply load us with information.

One drawback was that I did not meet most of the department’s instructors until the third year. The curriculum began with general subjects such as physics and higher mathematics, along with other required courses. That structure was set outside the department, and, as I understood it, was shared across the university.

From the third year, and especially the fourth, I became increasingly absorbed in the subjects: automatic control theory, PLC programming and supervisory-system design. They made me fall in love with developing automatic-control systems. When I later took part in real projects, it was an extraordinary feeling to see the machines I had programmed begin to move. I enjoyed the work more and more, and after graduating in 2015 I went to work in my field.

I am grateful to chance: during the third week of the application period, it sent me to submit my documents to ATEP at the Thermal Power Engineering Faculty.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

During my studies at ATEP, I discovered new areas of thermal-power engineering day by day. The course was not easy: as a woman in a technical field, I had to work through a great deal of demanding terminology and material. I was glad to show that technical sciences are within women’s reach, too.

Our instructors shared their skills, knowledge and experience with care, helping us prepare for work in automation and computer technologies. At the time I wrote this account, my projects included ventilation and microclimate systems, pumping stations, smoke-extraction systems and fire alarms. My studies helped me develop skills in designing process-control systems and preparing their drawings. Automatic control theory and process automation were especially useful. I also gained experience programming controllers from Phoenix Contact, Siemens, OWEN, Unitronics, Octagon and other manufacturers.

My instructors helped me develop practical technical skills and find work I enjoy. I plan to keep developing and to continue learning.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

I have always been drawn to the idea of teaching—or programming—something to carry out a task on its own. I first tried it in a school computer program, but it became practical only when a professional PLC began controlling real objects, devices and mechanisms according to my algorithm. That happened at ATEP. The department’s environment, especially its instructors, gave me a broader view of automation and programming.

The well-equipped laboratories were a clear advantage: they let us see how automation works in practice and understand what an automated process-control system does.

The knowledge and experience I gained helped me enter a promising, in-demand field, with skills relevant in Ukraine and abroad. The most interesting advances often happen where disciplines meet and lead to practical results. Automatic control and computer technologies are one such intersection.

After graduating and gaining practical experience, I founded a company with like-minded colleagues. We work in systems integration, automatic process control and innovative home automation.

In 2007, we were one of three companies worldwide to implement our idea of controlling a “smart home” from a computer interface based on the then-new Windows Vista Media Center, using an ordinary television remote and the TV screen. The software was called iMC. In 2008, it ran on the then-revolutionary Apple iPhone. By 2010, iMC ran as a Smart TV widget and needed only the television and its remote.

We demonstrated each of these innovations at SMART House exhibitions, where they attracted strong interest from end users, integrators and overseas “idea sniffers”. By the time of this account, other companies were developing ideas from the iMC product in their own products.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

The department got my mind working and made it a hundred times more productive. It gave me a start in life, whatever field I chose. Most of all, I became a completely different person.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

I graduated from the department in 1994. The idea of controlling a technological process automatically, without human intervention, shaped my choice of specialisation. Like many applicants, I was attracted by the promise of “automation”—and I have never regretted my decision. Much of that is thanks to our instructors: Kovryho, Chuiko, Mysaka, Kiselev, Poizansky, Movchan, Batyuk, Samsonov and others.

The department gave me two things. Professionally, I learned that a true automation engineer must understand the process being automated as well as—or better than—the process technologist. The job is not just drawing diagrams and pulling cables. An engineer needs specialist knowledge, must understand the technological process, connect it with the relevant engineering disciplines and develop a sound approach to automation.

That training also helped me in my career. Managing technology, business processes and people has a lot in common. I moved from deputy head of the heating-supply workshop at Kyiv’s Khimvolokno plant, to chief engineer at several private companies, then technical director and eventually president of our company. The automation fundamentals I learned at the department helped us change the company from a systems installer into a manufacturer of controller equipment and SCADA systems.

The department continues to develop. In recent years, it had placed greater emphasis on automation tools, programming and networks, giving students a broad education. My son, who also graduated from the department, combined a strong grounding in core subjects with a good command of modern automation tools. That helped him spend the year before this account developing a new multifunctional programming platform for our controllers and for building automation-system projects on that platform.

My one request is that the department continue teaching students about the processes and equipment they automate. That helps prepare versatile specialists. I encourage future students to consider the department and this field. Everyone eventually has to make choices; the important thing is to choose what interests you, rather than what relatives or other people expect.

Testimonial published in 2020. Roles and career details reflect the account at the time it was written.

At some point in life, everyone has to choose. It could be something as simple as cheese in a shop or something as consequential as a place to study; either way, you have to decide. From childhood, we discover whether we are drawn to art or science, knitting or football. The choice is personal, and it should be based on what interests you—not what an aunt, uncle, brother or distant relative wants.

I had loved the exact sciences since school; history and literature did not interest me. I decided to apply to a technical university and signed up for the school’s preparatory courses for Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The intensive timetable, assignments and tests were demanding. There were so many faculties, departments, letters and numbers to choose from. It took work to understand them, but I managed to narrow my options to the Thermal Power Engineering Faculty and the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Science.

I got into my first choice, the Thermal Power Engineering Faculty. Then came the next decision: which specialisation to choose? I loved computers and found them easy to work with, so I chose Computer-Integrated Technological Processes and Production at the Department of Automation of Thermal Power Processes. I did not yet know what that long name meant, but it caught my attention. Its meaning became clearer as I studied.

The first years were challenging. I take my responsibilities seriously: I attended classes and completed my work on time. There was a lot to study, and each subject brought something new. Since students in different specialisations share many early courses, it was initially difficult to see what set one field apart from another.

The most interesting part began in the fourth year, when most courses were directly related to the specialisation. I began to understand the work I wanted to do. SCADA won me over: in simple terms, these are systems for collecting data and controlling technological processes. We studied several kinds of systems, and I realised that this was the field I wanted to pursue. One thing I valued about graduating from the department was the confidence that we could learn to automate different kinds of processes, and an understanding of how to approach that work correctly.

In my sixth year, I actively looked for work. It was difficult, especially as a woman, but I kept sending my CV to technical companies. Eknis-Ukraine invited me to interviews and hired me. At first, I felt that people were reluctant to trust me with technical work and that management doubted a woman could be an engineer.

I drew on my determination and worked hard to show that women can be engineers and do the job as well as men. Management came to recognise that women, too, can be highly capable and that qualities such as patience, attention to detail and endurance can be valuable.

At the time of this account, I had worked at Eknis-Ukraine for more than five years and led a group developing automation systems. The two other members of my group were women. We developed and implemented automation systems, including supervisory control systems and substation automation. Our projects at the time included an automated process-control system for GPP-7 at EGOK in Komsomolsk, 330 kV GIS automation at CHPP-5 in Kyiv, and dispatching for the Mezhevskyi District Power Network in Dnipropetrovsk region. Our main task was to create a clear, reliable interface for dispatchers and ensure that the system operated reliably. Over those five years, our group had developed dispatching systems across almost the entire Dnipropetrovsk region, including two central dispatch centres, many high-voltage substations in Kyiv and other facilities across Ukraine.

After graduation, you might become a design engineer, commissioning engineer, installer or SCADA developer. What matters is finding work you enjoy, believing you can succeed and making the effort. What did the department give me? It taught me how to learn, pointed me in the right direction and helped me find my place in life. Isn’t that what we are all looking for?