On May 28, 2025, the Ukrainian State University of Chemical Technology (USUCT) hospitably hosted 10th grade students of the Chemical and Ecological Lyceum in Dnipro. The excursion was organized at the initiative of the director of the lyceum Tetyana Sytnyk.

The guests were met by the acting director of the USUCT, Professor Olga Sverdlikovska. The students had the opportunity to get acquainted with various locations of the university, where they saw modern laboratories, learned more about educational opportunities and felt the atmosphere of student life.

In the Laboratory of Printing and Design, the lyceum students learned about screen printing technologies, thermal transfer, monitor calibration and the features of preparing color images. Together with Associate Professor of the Department of Fuel, Polymer and Printing Materials Technologies Vitaly Tomilo, everyone could put the UDUNT logo on a textile bag to commemorate the visit.

At the Museum of History of USUCT, the students were met by the museum director Marina Demydko along with tour guides. Stories about the history of the institution, its graduates and achievements aroused sincere interest among the students.

The highlight of the program was an excursion to the Department of Chemical Technologies of Ceramics, Glass and Biomedical Materials. Associate Professor Olena Khomenko, Assistant Professor Yulia Kalishenko and engineers Yakilina Alekseeva and Varvara Titova introduced the lyceum students to the specialty G22 Biomedical Engineering, one of the areas of which is the development of technologies for creating biocompatible materials and studying the features of their interaction with a living organism. In an adult, proteins make up about 15-20% of the mass and perform construction, transport, enzymatic, immune and other important functions, so the laboratory work was carried out “Study of the influence of harmful factors on the structure of the protein”. The students personally tested what happens to the protein when it comes into contact with alkalis, acids, alcohols and other antiseptics. The experiment clearly demonstrated that under the influence of these factors, the protein structure is irreversibly destroyed to varying degrees. Such knowledge forms a stable understanding of the importance of chemistry as a science, not only in the engineering of biomedical materials, but also in creating a safe environment for life, and will definitely be useful in the future.

A small bonus for the students was the demonstration of crystals grown by students as part of the work of the scientific circle of the department “BioMed Horizons”.

It is especially pleasing to note that the students were interested and answered the teacher’s questions correctly, which indicates a high level of training at the Chemical and Ecological Lyceum.

We hope that this visit will be the first step for some of the students towards great science within the walls of our university.