Ihor Klymenko will receive a $100,000 scholarship as the student who makes the greatest real impact on education, the lives of his peers and society in general.
Igor is 17 years old, he is studying at the Faculty of Instrumentation Engineering in Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and at the University of Alberta (Canada). He got to Ukrainian Future Business Incubator of Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, for the first time as a student of the UF Startup Beginner pre-incubation program. Being a finalist of the All-Ukrainian scientific and technical exhibition-competition of youth innovative projects "Future of Ukraine 2021", Ihor received a Certificate for completing a course in a business incubator: his project - a quadrocopter-mine detector for remote detection of explosive objects - was recognized by our competition commission as one of the most promising among others presented at the competition.
In April 2022, Ihor joined the UF program and became one of its best graduates: the significantly improved project had every chance of becoming a breakthrough startup. So the promising innovator received an invitation to continue working on it as a resident of Ukrainian Future. Next month of innovation improvement - and Quadcopter mines detector became one of 14 "adult" startups that were selected among 76 applicants for the Ukrainian-Finnish project Empowering Future Entrepreneurial Ukraine - a mentoring program from business leaders of Finland, Estonia, and Ukraine with a grant fund over €60,000.
As a result of the Final Pitch of the program, which aimed to support startups whose products and services can help Ukraine in the war and post-war reconstruction, Ihor received a €5,000 grant for further work on the copter. This money was paid to the inventor in the summer of 2022 by the partners of Ukrainian Future - the Finnish investment company Ministry of Good Spirit.
Currently, Ihor Klymenko is the winner of the Global Student Prize. On September 20, 2022, the organizers of the Varkey Foundation announced that he was recognized as The Best Student in The World and was awarded a $100,000 scholarship. The boy plans to invest these funds, as well as the previous scholarship, in the development of his project.
Ihor’s about his victory:
"It took a lot of work and time, but now I got access to the global community and the opportunity to work with big investors and people all over the world! I also received a scholarship of $100,000and I am absolutely sure that I will spend most of it on the development of a drone! - said Ihor.
It should be noted that he started designing quadcopters and drones in the 10th grade and now has two patents for his device in Ukraine.
For reference: Global Student Prize is the "daughter" of the Global Teacher Prize. Nomination for the award takes into account a number of factors, including academic achievement, creativity, innovative approaches, real impact on their peers, community, and society in general.