Olena Azarova, a student in the Bachelor of Computer Science program at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) Faculty of Applied Sciences, will present her startup in the United States following her successful completion of the IdeasLab 9.0 program.
Olena Azarova
Together with co-founder Anna Monastyrska—also a Bachelor of Computer Science student at the Faculty of Applied Sciences—Azarova is developing PRM, a digital platform designed to improve the patient rehabilitation experience. Following their successful project pitch at the IdeasLab 9.0 presentation day, the team earned the opportunity to participate in a two-week educational program for young entrepreneurs at the University of Notre Dame and to present their project to experts and potential investors in Chicago.
Olena Azarova
In addition to this opportunity, the team received $25,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits to support further product development.
The PRM platform aims to streamline interactions between patients and rehabilitation specialists, making the recovery process more convenient, accessible, and effective. The team entered IdeasLab 9.0 with only a conceptual idea. Over 13 weeks, they conducted in-depth user research, interviewed potential clients, tested hypotheses, developed a working prototype, and received guidance from program mentors.
“Initially, PRM was conceived as an academic project for my thesis,” said Anna Monastyrska, co-founder and CEO. “At the time, I hadn’t considered the possibility of presenting the idea in the U.S. My primary goal was simply to research the market and determine whether the concept had potential.”
Anna Monastyrska
Monastyrska noted that after the program’s inaugural lecture, she invited Azarova to join the project as a co-founder. “We engaged extensively with potential users, iterated on our approach, and continuously refined our solution. What began as a hopeful joke about winning slowly became a tangible belief in our potential,” she added.
The upcoming U.S. trip is a strategic step toward understanding the market they intend to enter. “This is an opportunity for direct engagement with the market we aim to enter,” said Monastyrska. “While you can read extensively about America, nothing replaces in-person conversations. This trip will allow us to establish foundational contacts with clinics and learn from founders who have already navigated the path ahead of us.”
Participants of IdeasLab from UCU’s Ideas Center
IdeasLab 9.0 was the largest iteration in the program’s history, with a record 169 applications submitted by students from across Ukraine. The Ideas Center UCU is recognized as a leading university program for student startups, according to studies by Forbes Ukraine and Techosystem.
The program is implemented by the Ideas Center UCU in cooperation with the University of Notre Dame, with support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Catholic University.
