Every year on April 6, Association Noosphere celebrates its birthday with all Noosphereans. The number of congratulations is growing year by year, as does the number of people who share our belief in the power of the noosphere. More and more young and talented scientists, researchers, creators, engineers, and entrepreneurs get involved with Noosphere’s initiatives and projects. Together, we strive to create favorable conditions for cultivating innovations and developing tech projects.
Since our outset, we have launched loads of initiatives to bring about our goals and mission. Most of these are events dedicated to tech, robotics, engineering, rocketry and space. Most popular are Dnipro’s first tech festival BestRoboFest, and the engineering startup competition Vernadsky Challenge. Over 68,000 visitors and 959 participants have joined BestRoboFest since it launched in 2016. 649 engineering startups from 20 countries have signed up for Vernadsky Challenge since its 2015 premiere. Notably, famous mythbuster Jamie Hyneman joined the judge’s panel for the 2017 Vernadsky Challenge. In 2019, we held the first Noosphere Space Summit in Ukraine, bringing together 15 space experts from around the world to discuss the future of the space industry. That same year, we launched the Noosphere Space Art Challenge, receiving 7,423 drawings from children of all ages across Ukraine.
In addition to our own events, we have joined with two global hackathons: NASA Space Apps Challenge and ActInSpace. Since 2017, we have been the local stage for NASA Space Apps Challenge in Dnipro. This year, Dnipro will also be the local setting for ActInSpace. Not to mention, Noosphere is partnering with other organizations to bring you even more events: Copter Race and the FAI Championship for Space Models; Ukraine Rocketry Challenge and Ukrainian Spacemodelling Sport Federation’s Yangel Cup; and Dnipro Economic Forum with the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration.
Over the years we have collaborated with leading Ukrainian universities to open Noosphere Engineering School labs in 5 cities: Dnipro, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Rivne, and Zhytomyr. The School labs have hosted thousands of students, scientists, engineers, developers, designers, makers and other guests. They are known for the projects developed there, such as: ArtOS, a unique complex artillery units fire control; MyPol, a free mobile app for instant police calls; demi, an augmented and virtual reality application; Infusion Light, a device that measures the rate of medication in droppers and then transmits this data to a smartphone; and many others. Additionally, our outstanding member Firefly Aerospace is working with leading engineering universities towards a dual education environment for Ukrainian rocket scientists and engineers.
In 2019, we launched several more social projects that will continue through 2020. These projects include the reconstruction of Gagarin Park, a part of Dnipro National University, to be a place of recreation and education for Dnipro’s younger generations, and the reconstruction of Dnipro Planetarium with an eye to stimulating space education in Ukraine.
“The mission and goals of Association Noosphere are born from the great academician and philanthropist Vladimir Vernadsky’s theory of noosphere. We founded [the Association] to create favorable conditions for interaction among business, science and technology in Ukraine. Such an ecosystem will allow everyone to work on developing advanced innovations and share their experiences”, said Association Noosphere co-founder Max Polyakov.