MYKOLA HOVORUSHCHENKO (1924–2011): BIOGRAPHY OF A SCIENTIST

The article is devoted to the biography of Mykola Yakovych Hovoruschenko (1924– 2011). M. Hovorushchenko is known for his role in the development of the first modern stations of automated diagnostics. Under the direction of M. Hovorushchenko there were trained approximately 8500 engineers, more than 80 patents for inventions were obtained.

The Honored Worker of Science, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Mykola Yakovych Hovoruschenko [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] was born on May 24, 1924 in the village of Klynove, Borisov District, Belgorod Region. He graduated from high school in the city of Belgorod in 1940 and entered Kharkiv Automobile and Highway Institute (KhADI). His studies did not last long before they were interrupted the war. Hovorushchenko began his military service in the 381 st Reserve Regiment in Pugachev, in the rank of sergeant. After working for several months as a teacher in the preparatory section of the regiment, the young man volunteered for the front, where he served his way from an ordinary infantryman to a regimental staff officer. From February 1943 to November 1945 he fought on the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts, took part in the liberation of Kharkiv, served as a topographer, military interpreter, head of secret record keeping, and Komsomol organizer at the regimental headquarters.
In September 1945, Hovorushchenko was demobilized as a student who had finished his 1st year of university studies. He returned home in November of that year [1]. From 1946 to 1950 Hovorushchenko was a student at KhADI. As an honors student, he was offered an opportunity to pursue a postgraduate degree. In  [4].
Under the direction of Mykola Hovorushchenko, the department held the first Union-wide science and technology conference on the diagnosis and prognosis of the condition of motor vehicle stock in September 1967, which formulated the theoretical foundations of diagnosis and the basic principles of a new approach to the preventive maintenance and repair of motor vehicles on the basis of reliable diagnostic information [4, р. 21].
In 1970-1971, at the Department of Motor Vehicle Operation and Maintenance, in the sector lab of Ukraine's Ministry of Automotive Transportation, the first experimental model of a mobile station for diagnosing the maintenance condition of cars (PDS-I) was designed and produced under Hovorushchenko's direction. The KhADI model PDS-I was designed for determining the technical condition of privately owned vehicles by traffic control authorities and for annual mandatory maintenance inspections. The station consisted of a special diagnostic trailer and a truck. The equipment in the trailer allowed to diagnose all the basic systems and aggregates of a vehicle based on 60 parameters. Two operators were able to process up to 50 cars per shift. The data of the express-diagnosis were recorded on a tape that was later deciphered by the operators. The driver received a completed diagnosis card with a statement on the maintenance condition of the vehicle based on 72 parameters and recommendations for fixing the defects [10]. Another advantage of the station was its complete autonomy and independence from external power supply. It could be set up in 30 minutes. On May 24, 1974 the State Committee on Science and Technology of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of Ukraine resolved to create in KhADI the only research lab for the problems of the diagnosis of motor vehicle maintenance condition in the Soviet Union. Since 1974, more than 30 models of diagnostic equipment were developed at the lab, more than 60 patents for research in the field of diagnostics were received. Much of this work was done under the direction of Hovorushchenko.
Hovorushchenko authored more than 300 works, including over 40 monographs, textbooks, and manuals. He received more than 50 patents. One of his first works was the collective monograph Operational Characteristics of Highways (Moscow, Autotransizdat 1961) [29], summarizing research on the performance of motor vehicles in various road and traffic conditions. In October 1997, the department under the direction of Professor Hovorushchenko hosted a conference on the protection of air quality from harmful vehicle emissions. In 1998 the department organized a nation-wide conference on systems engineering in road transportation, which coincided with the 65th anniversary of the department. The department also received accreditation certificates for their fuel and operation materials research and analysis lab, as well as for the mobile diagnosis station [4, р. 22].
In the year 2000, the Department of Motor Vehicle Operation and Maintenance was renamed Department of Systems Engineering and Diagnosis of Transportation Machinery. In recent years, the faculty have been actively working on the theoretical principles of systems engineering and on the technological and economic cybernetics of transportation.