Junior Academy of Sciences

Want to try yourself in research before entering university? The Junior Academy of Sciences (MAN) offers a real research project supervised by a scientist of the department for students of grades 8–11: from posing the problem to defending it at the MAN competition.

What MAN at the department is

A project usually takes 4–8 months: a topic, the research, writing up and the defence at the MAN competition. Meetings with the supervisor – roughly once every one to two weeks during the school year.

The result is not an essay but your own contribution: processed data, a refined method, and sometimes a working software tool built with your own hands.

Research directions

Analysing microstructures in imagesExtracting and quantifying structures in microscopy images: texture, branching, fractal dimension. Working with real scientific images.
Building tools for ImageJ/FIJIIf programming interests you: writing a plugin that automates measurements on images.
Optical diagnostics of material defectsImage processing methods – crack detection, skeletonisation – on images obtained by optical techniques.
Laser and physical opticsExperimental mini-projects using the department’s laboratory equipment.

Examples of research topics

Microcracks in leaf venation imagesA model system for developing crack analysis methods. A semi-automatic skeletonisation tool with about 25 measurable parameters was built.
Solar cell defects in electroluminescence imagesFiltering, skeletonisation and fractal analysis of real industrial images.

The supervisor

Andrii Yakunov, associate professor at the Department of Optics

Andrii Yakunov – Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, associate professor at the Department of Optics. Research interests – optics of inhomogeneous media and biomedical optics; a separate line of work is science outreach with school students. He invites students of grades 8–11.

To get a feel for the supervisor’s way of thinking – a short popular science article by Andrii Yakunov, “The emergence of coherent oscillations in living systems” (PDF, 3 pages, in Ukrainian): how coherent oscillations, familiar to opticians from lasers, arise in the microtubules of a living cell.

More to read: Andrii Yakunov’s articles in Kraina Znan

Kraina Znan, a popular science magazine for school students, has been publishing the supervisor’s articles since 2008 – here are eight of them and one author’s version for advanced readers; all in Ukrainian.

Student achievements

Students who started with MAN at the department already have prizes at the national stage of the physics competition, a talk at the SPO international conference and a place at an international invention exhibition.

Mariia Kasianchuk – 2nd place at the national stage of the MAN physics competition (2022). Now a first-year master’s student at the Department of Optics, KNU.

Artem Sachko – winner of the national stage of the MAN physics competition (2025). He presented his work at the SPO-2025 international conference and represented Ukraine at the Kaohsiung International Invention and Design EXPO (KIDE 2025, Taiwan).

The Ukrainian delegation at KIDE 2025 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Participants of the Kaohsiung International Invention and Design EXPO (KIDE 2025, Taiwan, December 2025). Artem Sachko is on the far right.
Award ceremony for the prize winners of the national MAN stage, Kyiv, 2025
Award ceremony for the prize winners of the national MAN stage, Kyiv, 2025.
School students examine spectral filters in the Department of Optics laboratory
A class for school students in the department’s laboratory: spectral filters.
An optical setup on a laboratory bench at the Department of Optics
An optical setup for student research projects.

How to join

  1. ApplyWrite to us via the contact form – no prior preparation is usually needed.
  2. Get a supervisorThe department will match a supervisor to your interests.
  3. Agree the topic and planAt the introductory meeting you agree on the topic and the work plan.
  4. Work regularlyMeetings with the supervisor – roughly once every one to two weeks during the school year.
  5. Defend the projectWriting up the project and defending it at the MAN competition.

Consultations for physics teachers

Supervising a student’s MAN project in physics or optics and in need of expert advice? The department’s researchers hold free online consultations for teachers from other cities who guide student research projects on their own.

The format is a one-off consultation of up to 30–40 minutes: discussing the method, the soundness of the approach, the interpretation of results. Send the student’s materials in advance.

    Consultations are available throughout the school year. Applications are answered within a week.

    Frequently asked questions

    icon Do I need to know how to program?

    No – for most directions it is not required. For the plugin development topic, basic programming skills are an advantage but not a requirement at the start.

    icon How much time does it take per week?

    Roughly 2–4 hours a week, including the meeting with the supervisor.

    icon Can it be combined with NMT preparation?

    Yes, the format is flexible and agreed individually.

    Questions left? Write to us →