On August 15 and 16, 2026, the family festival “Bukids City of Professions” was held at the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, bringing together hundreds of families with children of different ages. The Belarusian National Technical University traditionally took an active part in the event, organizing interactive zones presented by several faculties.
The Faculty of Information Technologies and Robotics (FITR) prepared an extensive program dedicated to the profession of a programmer. Students and lecturers introduced young visitors to the future profession from different perspectives — from practical career guidance to engaging activities aimed at developing logical thinking.
At the FITR zone, young visitors could not only watch but also actively participate: children controlled robots, completed logic tasks, learned the basics of algorithms through visual puzzles, and created flowcharts. Different activities were prepared for various age groups: the youngest participants explored sequences and colors, primary school students tried visual programming, while teenagers solved Python tasks in a mini-hackathon format.
Polina, a fourth-year FITR student who worked as a volunteer at the festival for the first time, shared her impressions:
“My impressions are entirely positive! The event is organized in a very interesting way. We show children robots — that is what attracts them the most. We also let them draw and give them stickers. Some of the children are very young, and they are interested in interacting with technology.”
In addition to FITR, the festival featured interactive zones organized by the Faculty of Mining and Engineering Ecology, the Faculty of Architecture, and the Automotive and Tractor Faculty. Each of them prepared unique activities that allowed children to discover the world of professions through play.
Visitors highly appreciated BNTU’s participation. Yuri, who attended the festival with his seven-year-old son, noted:
“We really enjoyed the geology section, the rocks and microscopes — it is very interesting. We have already visited many zones, but we spent a lot of time at the BNTU area. Festivals like this help children explore future careers and understand what they may be interested in doing later in life.”
The Bukids Festival has already become an important career-guidance platform where children and parents can learn about different professions in an informal setting, ask students and lecturers questions, and take their first steps towards choosing a future career.
Participation in such events is an important part of FITR BNTU’s efforts to promote engineering and IT professions among the younger generation. The faculty will continue the tradition of introducing young Belarusians to the world of information technologies and robotics at future festivals.
