Educational Lights: Lviv IT Cluster Honored the Best Mentors and Curators of Educational Programs

As part of IT Arena 2025, Ukraine’s largest tech event, our education team held the traditional Education Community Event. The meeting brought together over 120 participants: heads and lecturers of higher education institutions, curators and mentors of the Lviv IT Cluster bachelor programs, as well as partners from our association’s member companies. During the event, we summarized the results of this year’s work, shared ambitious plans for the future, presented the new ArtRise project, and honored the best mentors and curators of our bachelor’s programs.

This year, 26 new mentors of our educational community earned recognition for shaping the next generation of tech talent. Last year, they took on the role of mentors in our educational programs for the first time, supporting students every step of the way, from the first lecture to the final project presentations. These are specialists from the companies ablefy, Brainence, Ciklum, Genesis, Gismart, GreenM, Intellias, Lviv IT Cluster, SoftServe, Stfalcon, Wiseboard. Along with mentors, recognition was also extended to the institute directors of partner universities, deans, and newly appointed curators.

For the second consecutive year, we honored the laureates of our “Educational Lights” award — specialists who have actively participated in the Lviv IT Cluster educational initiatives for many years.

“These professionals helped us build educational projects from the very beginning or relaunch processes and programs from scratch. We call them educational lights — like the first rays that disperse darkness in Lesya Ukrainka’s poem ‘Predawn Lights’. They illuminate the path for students, support the university and tech communities, and inspire new projects. Their tireless work, ideas, and energy ignite those around them, creating a light that guides the next generation of specialists,” explained Julia Tsymbala, Education Lead at Lviv IT Cluster.

The laureates received linocut prints created by Lviv illustrator Tetiana Zahachevska, thus supporting the charity fund of the Lviv National Academy of Arts. The 2025 awards highlighted achievements in these categories:

• University Curator 2025 — Zenovii Veres, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Computerized Automation Systems at Lviv Polytechnic National University and Solution Architect at SoftServe. He initiated the reform of bachelor’s programs and has been curating students of the Internet of Things program since 2016, helping them implement their own projects.
  
• Industry Curator 2025 — Yaroslav Zhmykhov, Chief Design Officer at TeqID and curator of the updated UX/UI Design program at Lviv Polytechnic. Yaroslav pays special attention to helping students find a dream job in tech companies while still studying.
  
• Mentor 2025 — Andrii Zaets, one of the most active mentors of student teams, who annually selects several teams and teaches young people not only technical aspects but also product thinking and responsibility for results.
  
• Teamwork Instructor 2025 — Mykhailo Vyachalo, lecturer at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Process Optimizer at SoftServe. He teaches team interaction to students of Cybersecurity and Statistics & Data Science programs, which is why his students’ projects traditionally rank among the best.
  
• Business Mentor 2025 — Maryana Kulynych, Head of PMO at ABTO Software and business mentor of the IT Expert initiative. She supports student teams in planning, communication, and process organization. This year, she also acted as a mentor for the ArtRise student project, helping to turn the idea into a real product.

ArtRise is a charitable online platform for selling artworks created by teachers and students of the Lviv National Academy of Arts. The funds raised through the platform are directed to support the projects of the “Friends of Lviv National Academy of Arts” charity fund.

The initiative was implemented through the collaboration of developer students from Lviv Polytechnic National University and design students from the Lviv National Academy of Arts under the mentorship of specialists from the Lviv IT Cluster member companies. ArtRise became a vivid example of how inter-university interaction and business involvement strengthen each other. Such synergy fosters the emergence of new socially important projects that promote the values of mutual support and community development.

During the Education Community Event, the Lviv IT Cluster education team also presented the results of its work and shared plans for the future. We continue to improve the level of technical education in Ukraine and have launched five new bachelor’s programs this year. Three of them are at Lviv Polytechnic National University: Virtual Reality, Computer Engineering, and Applied Mathematics & Computer Science, and two — at Kyiv Aviation Institute: Intelligent Systems and Electronics.

Additionally, Lviv IT Cluster educational programs remain in demand among applicants. This is evidenced by the results of this year’s admission campaign. For the second year in a row, every second applicant to tech specialties in the Lviv region chooses our bachelor programs: in 2025, 11,626 applications were submitted, which is 56% of all applications for tech specialties in the region.

The Lviv IT Cluster education team also continues to actively work on creating a Research Center in Lviv for students of engineering specialties. The center will become a space where students and researchers from different universities can work on joint projects, deepen their knowledge, attend lectures, and develop entrepreneurial skills. It will include laboratories for cross-sector research, spaces for lectures and workshops, and areas for working on startups.

Join our educational community to help shape the future of Ukraine’s tech industry. Contact Julia Tsymbala: [email protected].