The Applied Mathematics Department has been a member of the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry (ECMI) since 2010. In fact, through our department, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is the only Ukrainian university admitted to this powerful European scientific and educational organization. With the onset of the Russian armed forces' attack on Ukraine in 2022, ECMI suspended the membership of Russian universities and provided extensive support to Ukraine.

In particular, in 2022 and 2024 ECMI fully funded the participation of five Ukrainian students in its modelling weeks at the University of Verona (Italy, 2022) and the University of Catania  (Italy, 2024).

In 2024, two third-year undergraduate students (Anton Pieshkov and Yan Aklog) and three first-year Master's students (Anna Mashyr, Mariia Pinda, and Mariia Umanets) participated in the modelling week.

Below is the feedback from Mariia Pinda about her participation in this modelling week:

“The 37th ECMI Modelling Week took place on 23–29 June, 2024 at the University of Catania, Italy. As part of the event, students from different European countries formed teams to solve problems in the field of mathematical modeling and information technology. Among a sufficient number of proposed problems, our group (Anna Mashyr, Mariia Pinda, and Mariia Umanets) chose an optimization problem called Glazier. The instructor Piotr Krzyżanowski (University of Warsaw, Poland) (a.k.a. Mr. Glazier) owns a factory for manufacturing and cutting glass. An order specifies the dimensions and number of rectangles to be cut from a large sheet of glass. Mr. Glazier wants to minimize the leftovers.

The task was really interesting. In addition to our group, the team also included students from the Netherlands, Portugal, and Italy. The instructor gave an interesting introductory lecture and a mini-performance, during which Mr. Glazier explained all the details of his factory. We divided the problem into several parts, and each of us dealt with a different subproblem. The discussion was in English, but it was fun and easy. Everyone offered their ideas, consulted and shared their results. In the end, the problem was solved. We used different methods and compared their quality. And most importantly, Mr. Glazier is satisfied with the result.

In general, we had plenty of free time apart from working hours. Together with our new friends, we rescued a blind homeless kitten, swam in the Mediterranean Sea at night, walked a lot and enjoyed the local nature. We learned more about Italian cuisine and traditions. It's not for nothing that we wrote "together with friends", because the most valuable thing for us was meeting incredible people who became really close to us during this intense week.

Thank you for this unforgettable experience!”