The process of establishing departments at the Mykolaiv Shipbuilding Institute, compared to other former educational institutions that emerged at the same time, was somewhat unusual. There are two peculiarities of the Mykolaiv Shipbuilding Institute in this regard: first, the institute was based on a secondary technical school, which had no departmental structure as such; second, in the initial period of the institute's formation, there was virtually no noticeable inflow of teachers with academic degrees and experience in traditionally structured higher education institutions (for reasons that were largely beyond the institute's control: the provincial nature of Mykolaiv, the lack of housing, etc.). Therefore, the MSI had to repeat, albeit at an accelerated pace, the path of development of higher technical institute education. This scheme usually involves a small number of deeply committed enthusiasts who, with great difficulty, create specialised laboratories and classrooms around which teachers and scientists are concentrated to ensure that future engineers are properly trained and research is carried out. Therefore, the prototype of the Department of Internal Combustion Engines and all other departments of mechanical engineering was the heat engineering laboratory and its classroom, which, as we already know, originated on the basis of the mechanical engineering department of the secondary mechanical engineering school and was founded by I.Nekrasov. In the early 30's, when the MSI finally acquired the status of an institute, the traditional departmental structure began to take shape. In 1931, the Department of Main Ship Mechanisms was among the first to be established, providing teaching of all specialised disciplines in mechanical engineering and disciplines covering the theoretical foundations of heat engineering. This department was headed by the same I. Nekrasov. And this gives us the right to believe that 1931 is the year of the emergence of the Department of Internal Combustion Engines, Installations and Technical Operation. In October 1937, the department was renamed Main and Auxiliary Ship Mechanisms. Professor Nekrasov continued to be the Head of the Department. In 1938, the department was divided into two departments: ‘Main Ship Mechanisms’ (Head of the Department - Professor I. Nekrasov) and ‘Auxiliary Ship Mechanisms’ (Head of the Department - Professor N. Bugrinov). In 1939, with the arrival of Associate Professor V. Lakhanin to the Institute, the Department of Main Ship Mechanisms was divided into two: the Department of Ship Steam Boilers and Ship Steam Engines (Head of the Department, Associate Professor V. Lakhanin) and the Department of Internal Combustion Engines (Head of the Department, Professor I. Nekrasov).

1928 A group of students who graduated from the shipbuilding college (the prototype of the Moscow State Institute of Shipbuilding) with a degree in internal combustion engines. Second row, in the centre: I. Nosenko, future Minister of the USSR Shipbuilding Industry, far right: T. Sinelnikov, future initiator of the USSR Maritime Register.

1939 A group of MKI employees. In the centre - Head of the Department of Marine Internal Combustion Engines, Professor I. Nekrasov, second from right - Head of the Heat Engineering Laboratory T. Epelman