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October 31, 2023
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19:00
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Offline
CTO Hitchhiker's Guide to R&D
2025
Ukraine
🧭 Andriy Fisunenko (Vice President in R&D at Samsung R&D Institute Ukraine) shared his journey — from low-level programming and railway projects for Ukrzaliznytsia to global tech leadership at a major international company.
Highlights from the conversation:
- What R&D looks like at Samsung: focus areas, scale, types of teams and products
- The path of an engineer growing within the structure — from the first project to combining Director and CTO roles
- How internal culture works: discipline + freedom = a creative challenge
- Why large companies fuel a startup mindset — launching new products and technologies within massive organizations
- The role of a tech leader in building independence, trust, and accountability
This meetup was a field guide to navigating the R&D galaxy — equipped with structured thinking, a love for C++, and a deep understanding of people.
Meetup speakers
Vice President in R&D @ Samsung R&D Institute Ukraine
Andriy Fisunenko – MD in Theoretical Physics, PhD in Computer Science. Leading HW/SW R&D since 1997. In 1997-2008 worked mainly on Ukrainian railways' independence of legacy USSR systems. Currently, for almost 15 years, he has been heading R&D in Samsung R&D Institute Ukraine.
Director of Engineering @ Turnitin
The moderator is Yana Mykhailenko, CTO of Turnitin, an international company that ensures the integrity of education and is a leader in anti-plagiarism solutions. She is a judge and mentor at international competitions and hackathons.
Upcoming events
Business Security Strategies
In the first summer evenings, the 19th meetup of the series will take place, where technical leaders will discuss cybersecurity in business and product development.
CEO and Founder @AmonSul
Coordinator of the Cyber Security Program at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
AI Implementation
Over the May holidays, tech leaders will meet to talk about how they are implementing AI in development and business processes.
Founder @ Stealth AI Startup, @ XSight
Director of Engineering @ Turnitin
Conference | How to Become Great CTO
In the last days of July, DEV Challenge, in collaboration with UNIT.City, will bring together Ukraine’s tech leaders, entrepreneurs, company and startup founders, CTOs and managers to discuss the most pressing and essential topics in technology, business, and leadership.
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