Microsoft Corporation, the global software development giant, announced on March 10 that it had launched an information technology innovation lab in Kharkiv (Courtesy) Microsoft Corporation, the global software development giant, announced on March 10 that it had launched an information technology innovation lab in Kharkiv, the second in Ukraine thus far.

The company said the new lab, based at Kharkiv’s National University of Radioelectronics, will provide state-of-the-art access to know-how and technology to support the best teachers, most talented students and information technology enthusiasts.

It will cooperate closely with the first Microsoft IT lab launched in Ukraine, at Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko University, and with about 130 such centers operating in 60 countries across the globe.

Microsoft representatives said the main objective of such labs is to increase the quality and competency of education in the information technology and software development fields.

Kharkiv, noted in Soviet days for its strong education and research institutions, was an obvious location for such a lab, according to Dmytro Shymkiv, general director of Microsoft Ukraine. “It was not by coincidence that we chose Kharkiv as the second city where a Microsoft innovation center would operate. Kharkiv is the scientific and educational center of eastern Ukraine,” Shymkiv said.