Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab — a 10-week engineering program based on an actual Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) course and adapted to the Ukrainian context. More than 100 selected participants will work in teams on real-world technological challenges—from problem research to the creation and testing of a working prototype.
The program will run from October 2026 to February 2027 and is being implemented with the partnership support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Its focus is on solutions that can be applied in high-tech industries.
The Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab is built around the “learning by doing” principle: instead of working on hypothetical academic assignments, participants will receive real-world engineering cases from partner companies and work on them throughout the course.
Each team will consist of 10 participants and will work on a single technological challenge over the course of 10 weeks. Teams will progress from researching the problem and identifying potential solutions to designing, developing, testing, and creating a proven prototype.
From a real-world problem to a working prototype
The key idea behind the Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab is to bridge the gap between engineering education and the real-world technological challenges facing Ukrainian companies today.
The course is based on MIT methodology and combines an academic foundation with hands-on teamwork.
More than 40 experts are expected to be involved in working with the teams.
Among the areas in which partners can propose engineering case studies are:
The program involves regular in-person work in Kyiv. Teams will work in KAI’s new labs.
KAI is responsible for adapting the MIT course to the Ukrainian context, organizing and overseeing the learning process, selecting participants, forming balanced teams, engaging mentors, providing access to labs, and organizing the final Demo Day.
Partner companies, in turn, can provide the program with real-world technology case studies and the necessary context, involve their own experts, supply equipment, technologies, and materials, and continue to work with the teams’ results.
The author and developer of the Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab — Gene R. Keselman, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, executive director of MIT Mission Innovation Experimental (MIx), and managing director of MIT Proto Ventures.
Gene R. Keselman has over 20 years of military experience in the U.S. Air Force.
His professional experience spans nuclear and space operations, procurement, and defense program management, as well as technology and research programs for the U.S. intelligence community
He also has hands-on entrepreneurial experience and works on developing technologies from concept to company formation. MIT Proto Ventures, which he leads, operates as a venture studio focused on transforming promising technologies into new businesses.
Keselman is already involved in the Ukrainian context: he is a member of MIT-Ukraine Allies and has participated in MIT programs related to finding technological solutions for Ukraine.
The director of the Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab program is Radmila Segol, vice rector for admissions and online education at KAI and a Global MIT At-Risk Fellow for 2026–2027.
The team also includes the deans of three specialized faculties at KAI: Sviatoslav Yutkevych, Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering; Roman Odarchenko, Dean of the Faculty of Air Navigation, Electronics, and Telecommunications; and Andriy Fesenko, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Technology.
Registration and participant selection will take place in September.
The program will begin in October: selected participants will be grouped into balanced teams based on their expertise and the case studies they will work on.
Next comes 10 weeks of intensive teamwork on technological solutions, with weekly in-person sessions in KAI’s labs and support from mentors.
In February 2027, the teams will present their results during Demo Day in Kyiv.
But Demo Day won’t necessarily be the end of the journey. The next stage, built into the program’s model, is the implementation of the developed solution at a partner company.
It is precisely this approach that sets the Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab apart from a traditional educational course: the outcome should not be a grade or a course project, but a technological solution that has progressed to a proven prototype and can be further developed outside the university.
The program is aimed at people with a technical background who are ready to work on real-world engineering challenges in an intensive team setting.
The Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab is open not only to KAI students. Senior undergraduate and graduate students, as well as participants with relevant experience in software development, AI, robotics, electronics, engineering, and related technological fields, are eligible to apply.
Participation is free for candidates who pass the selection process
Detailed terms and registration: https://ielab.tech/
For reference
Ukraine Innovation and Engineering Lab is a 10-week project-based engineering program modeled after a real MIT course and adapted by KAI to the Ukrainian context. Its goal is to bring together talented technical participants, academic expertise, the university’s infrastructure, and real-world technological needs of companies to create working prototypes.
The program will run from October 2026 to February 2027.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and one of the world’s leading centers for education, science, engineering, and technological innovation. Founded in 1861, MIT conducts fundamental and applied research in engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics, aerospace technology, energy, biotechnology, and other fields. An important part of the MIT ecosystem is technology entrepreneurship and the transfer of research from laboratories to practical applications.
The National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute” is a university with nearly a century of history in aviation and engineering education. Today, it is a major educational and technological hub where aviation, unmanned systems, defense tech, IT, engineering, and dozens of other fields are being developed. State-of-the-art laboratories, hands-on projects, and collaboration with industry give students the opportunity to work with real-world technologies while still in school.