History

The history of the Department dates back to 7 July 1958, when the Department of Mining Automation and Telemechanics was founded at the Kharkiv Mining Institute (KhMI).

Yevtykhii Yakovych Ivanchenko (1954–1973)

The Department's first head was Professor Yevtykhii Yakovych Ivanchenko. He studied at the Craft College in Zaporizhzhya, graduated from the Rabfak (workers' school), and then continued his education at the Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute in the Electrotechnical Department, where he began his scientific work. For his major contribution to the development of the mining industry, he was awarded the scientific degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences and the academic title of Associate Professor without defending a dissertation in 1935. Then came the war, evacuation and a return to his home city. In 1948 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation and received the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences and the title of Professor. He headed the Department of Mining Electrical Engineering in 1954.

While serving as Head of the Department at the Kharkiv Mining Institute, Professor Ivanchenko put a great deal of effort into creating specialised laboratories and organising a new speciality — “Automation of Production Processes in the Coal Industry”. As a result, the Department of Mining Electrical Engineering was reorganised into the Department of Mining Automation and Telemechanics in 1958.

As head of the research work, Yevtykhii Yakovych gave new impetus to this area of the University's activity. During his first three years at the Kharkiv Mining Institute (1954–1957), the volume of contract-funded research grew to 3.5 million rubles. On Professor Ivanchenko's initiative, the Ministry of Coal Industry of the Ukrainian SSR opened several research laboratories at the Kharkiv Mining Institute, and the work of these laboratories significantly improved the quality of the educational process.

Ye.Ya. Ivanchenko worked as Head of the Department until 1973, after which he remained a Professor Consultant until the end of his life. He died in 1980.

For his great achievements in production and scientific work, Ye.Ya. Ivanchenko was repeatedly given government awards and honorary distinctions: the badge “Excellent Officer of the Ministry of Coal Industry” and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (for training personnel) in 1948; the medal “For Valiant Labour” and a second Order of the Red Banner of Labour (for length of service) in 1949; the personal rank of Mining General Director, 3rd Class, in 1953; the “Miner's Glory” badge, 2nd Class, in 1959; and the medal “30th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War” in 1975.

Over his scientific career, Professor Ivanchenko supervised many postgraduates and Candidates of Technical Sciences and had over 55 published scientific works.

When the Kharkiv Institute of Mining Machinery, Automation and Computer Engineering (KhIMMACE) was founded on the basis of KhMI in 1963, the resulting changes in the institution's educational and scientific direction affected the Department's further activity: by Rector's Order No. 62 of 20 February 1963, the Department of Automation and Telemechanics was created.

Further reorganisation of the institution (KhIMMACE became the Kharkiv Institute of Radio Electronics, KhIRE, in 1966) led to the opening of new faculties and specialities. The Faculty of Control Systems was created at the Institute in 1972, and the Department was tasked with training engineers in Speciality 0646 — Automated Control Systems (ACS); on 1 September 1975 the Department of Automation and Telemechanics was renamed the Department of Automated Control Systems. Since 1988, the Department of Automated Control Systems has trained specialists in Speciality 22.02.03 — Automated Systems of Information Processing and Control, and since 1993 in Speciality 7.080.401 — Computerised Systems of Information Processing and Control, which was renamed “Information Control Systems” on 7 July 1997. Since then, the Department of ACS has become the Department of Information Control Systems (ICS).

Valentyn Viktorovych Svyrydov (1973–1994)

From 1973 to 1994, the Department was headed by Valentyn Viktorovych Svyrydov — Honoured Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, Academician of the Engineering Academy of Ukraine, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Applied Radio Electronics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, and Rector of our University in 1984–1994.

Svyrydov became a student of the Electromechanical Faculty of the Kharkiv Mining Institute in 1954. His excellent studies, successful scientific work in Professor Ye.Ya. Ivanchenko's research group, and his brilliant defence in 1959 of his diploma project (on a mining engineer-electromechanic's automation) were crowned with an invitation to work at the Department of Automation and Telemechanics. After completing his postgraduate studies, V.V. Svyrydov defended his Candidate's dissertation ahead of schedule in 1964, and his Doctoral dissertation in 1973.

Working at the Institute, Valentyn Viktorovych rose through every scientific and academic career step, from Junior Researcher to Professor. He became Head of the Department of Automated Control Systems and Dean of the Faculty of Control Systems in 1973, Secretary of the Institute's Party Committee in 1978, and in January 1984 was appointed Rector of KhIRE, Chair of the Council of Rectors, and General Director of the “Delta” Scientific-Educational-Production Association at KhIRE.

V.V. Svyrydov completed a research placement in France and took part in scientific trips to Yugoslavia, Great Britain and other countries, where he lectured on courses related to new information technologies. Valentyn Viktorovych worked actively in every area of the University's activity, was responsible and creative in carrying out his duties, and always knew how to mobilise the team when solving problems; he was distinguished by a high level of professionalism, the ability to quickly assess a situation, summarise information, and make unconventional decisions when necessary.

V.V. Svyrydov led the most important scientific and applied projects on creating operational production-control systems, components of the Unified Automated Tsunami Warning System, specialised control and diagnostic systems for diesel-electric units, and many others. He supervised 6 Doctors and more than 40 Candidates of Sciences.

V.V. Svyrydov is the author of monographs and study guides, and over 200 scientific works. He chaired specialised councils for the defence of Doctoral and Candidate dissertations, and was a member of the editorial board of the “ACS and Automation Devices” collection.

In 1992, Valentyn Viktorovych Svyrydov was elected an Academician of the Engineering Academy of Ukraine in the field of “Information Systems, Computing and Electronic Engineering, Communication and Telecommunication Systems, Metrology and Instrument Making”, as well as an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Applied Radio Electronics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

Valentyn Viktorovych was also a fine athlete, who played for Kharkiv's city volleyball team alongside renowned Ukrainian volleyball players in fairly high-level competitions.

V.V. Svyrydov's contributions to improving the educational process, restructuring higher education and upgrading the material and technical base were repeatedly recognised by the leadership of the Ministry of Higher Education of the Ukrainian SSR. He was awarded the honorary title “Honoured Worker of the Higher School of Ukraine”. Valentyn Viktorovych chaired the Council of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions of Kharkiv, was Vice-President of the Council of Rectors of Ukraine, and held government awards (the Order of Friendship of Peoples, medals).

With V.V. Svyrydov's involvement, the traditions laid down in the Department's early years grew stronger — above all, a close connection and continuity between generations. A vivid example: among the more than 40 Candidates and 6 Doctors of Sciences he trained are the Department's current staff — lecturers V.I. Saienko, N.V. Vasyltsova, A.V. Mikhnova, D.K. Mikhnov, Leading Researcher O.E. Neumyvakina and, above all, Viktor Makarovych Levykin, who literally picked up the baton from V.V. Svyrydov and became Head of the Department in 1994, a difficult time for everyone.

Viktor Makarovych Levykin (1994–2021)

Before studying at KhIRE, Viktor Makarovych Levykin served in the Navy on the Pacific Fleet. A Lenin scholarship holder, he graduated with honours from the Kharkiv Institute of Radio Electronics in 1970 and began working as a Junior Researcher at the Department of Automated Control Systems; in 1972 he entered postgraduate study.

After defending his Candidate's dissertation in 1974, Viktor Makarovych began working as an Assistant at the Department of Automated Control Systems; he worked as a Senior Lecturer from 1977, and received the academic title of Associate Professor (Docent) in 1979.

For seven years, V.M. Levykin chaired the KhIRE Trade Union Committee; in 1992–1999 he worked as Dean of the Faculty for Training Foreign Students.

Viktor Makarovych defended his Doctoral dissertation in 1996, received the rank of Professor the same year, and headed the Institute of Computer and Information Technologies in 1999–2005.

Professor Levykin developed a new scientific direction on creating formalised systems-analysis tools that describe, at a categorical-functorial level, the process of designing complex information systems as well as their structure and state. He leads research in the theoretical and methodological foundations of creating complex computerised integrated systems, describing complex systems and integrating their elements, creating automated tools to support management decisions, automated cost-management systems, adaptive integrated enterprise management systems, principles for designing information control systems, and the like. Throughout his scientific career, Viktor Makarovych has taken responsibility for supervising research commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and the Kharkiv Regional State Administration in the field of distributed logistical computerised systems for organisational and technological management, emergency-response information and analytical systems, and the like. Viktor Makarovych was Deputy Chief Designer of the “University” information and analytical system.

V.M. Levykin heads the work of scientific sections — in particular, “Development and Reengineering of Information Systems” (within the annual International Youth Forum “Radio Electronics and Youth in the 21st Century”) and “Theory, Methodology and Tools for Creating Integrated Information Control Systems” (within the annual International Scientific Conference “Theory and Technique of Transmission, Reception and Processing of Information”). Viktor Makarovych is a member of the Academic Council and the Scientific and Methodological Council of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics (KhNURE), and a member of specialised councils for the defence of dissertations for the degrees of Candidate and Doctor of Technical Sciences.

Since 2002, Viktor Makarovych Levykin has been an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Applied Radio Electronics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. He is the author of more than 400 scientific works, including 2 author's certificates, and is also a co-author of a textbook and 13 study guides; under his supervision, 4 Doctors and 25 Candidates of Sciences have been trained.

Viktor Makarovych was awarded the medals “For Labour Valour” and “Veteran of Labour”, the anniversary medal “100 Years Since the Birth of V.I. Lenin, 1870–1970”, the badge of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions “For Active Work in the Trade Union”, a Certificate of Honour from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and the badge “Excellence in Education of Ukraine”. In 1999 he became a prize-winner, and in 2004 took first place in the regional competition “Higher School of the Kharkiv Region — the Best Names” in the category “Best Head of Department”. Such a high rating was given to both the Head and his Department, one of the leading departments in training specialists in the ICST speciality.

Kostiantyn Eduardovych Petrov (since 2021)

Since November 2021, the Department has been headed by Kostiantyn Eduardovych Petrov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor.