With the support of Viva-MTS, with the joint efforts of the ICT Employers’ Union and the National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NAPU), two classrooms renovated and turned into an IoT laboratory were opened in the 9th building of the university. Newly equipped classrooms provide a motivating educational environment.
Over the course of five years, from 2019 to now, in order to provide modern educational conditions for students and startups, partner organizations have opened 11 classrooms and co-working spaces at ASSU. Viva-MTS has invested 184 million drams for this purpose.
Representatives of the government, the university rector and teaching staff, the general director and representatives of Viva-MTS, members of the board of the ICT employers’ union, the executive director and other members of the union participated in the commissioning of the classrooms with modern educational conditions.
RA Deputy Minister of Economy Rafael Gevorgyan noted in his welcoming speech that not only the creation of appropriate infrastructure is important for strengthening the ties between education and business, but also the development and implementation of educational programs in cooperation with the private sector, which will best meet the changing market requirements. The deputy minister also emphasized the importance of technology in ensuring the inclusiveness of economic growth. In particular, he drew attention to the need for their application in various branches of the economy, to which the newly created center at the National Polytechnic University of Armenia with the support of Viva-MTS and ICT Employers’ Union is a step towards this.
“I am pleasantly surprised, because I myself from 1997 to 2006 it was on these floors that I went from bachelor’s to master’s, and then the thesis defense. It is very nice to see the change of environment and cooperation of ICT Union and Viva-MTS. In fact, changing the educational environment, adapting it to the requirements of time, thinking and innovative technologies is not only important, but also necessary. I think what has been created here over the years will motivate students and help create a larger stream towards natural sciences and engineering. It is a strategically important direction for our state,” said Ruben Simonyan, deputy minister of high-tech industry.
“If the education system is not flexible, the youth will simply lag behind the developments of the modern world. To prevent all that, we have taken practical steps with our partner organizations years ago. The focus of our attention was the content of the delivered material and its demand, and the creation of a motivating environment. Everything needs to be empowering, empowering, and up-to-date. Specialists developing IoT solutions will learn in this classroom. Today, many people hear the term “Internet of Things”. Moreover, it is no longer possible to surprise anyone with the ability to control a “smart home” or “smart garden” with a mobile phone. This is a field where technology is intertwined with marketing, data science, sales and business strategy. The educational environment should be conducive, the laboratories should be equipped, the teachers should be experienced, the teaching material should be practically tested. The educational system must produce in-demand specialists, and in this case, the continuity of the university-business connection is important. That’s why we are here,” Viva-MTS General Director Armen Avetisyan said.
“Starting from 2019, within the framework of Viva-MTS’s corporate social responsibility programs, with the joint efforts of the ICT Employers’ Union and the National Polytechnic University of Armenia, we have renovated the auditoriums on the 7th floor of the 9th building of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, equipping them with computers and other necessary equipment to organize modern training. We are very proud of the work we have done and we are trying to complete this project. I should mention that we have already renovated 11 classrooms and provided them with approximately 100 computers and other equipment. By creating such an educational environment, we try to motivate students to learn and come up with new ideas. It is very important to implement such models in other universities as well. I would also like to highlight the cooperation between the private sector-university and two members of the Union, ASSU and Viva-MTS, which is a brilliant example in the context of cooperation,” said Eduard Musayelyan, executive director of the ICT Employers’ Union.
“I should mention that these programs will contribute to the organization of competitive education of students specializing in information and communication technologies, and this is an opportunity to organize quality education by providing laboratory infrastructure and conditions. On any occasion, we talk about innovation, smart solutions, digitization. We provide the process so that our students have the opportunity to create such innovation in the future as a result of competitive education, which will contribute to the digitization of the country, to increase the quality of private business activities. The project was implemented by the joint efforts of the ICT Employers’ Union, Viva-MTS Company, and the University of Georgia, and this trinity creates confidence that the cooperation will be continuous,” said Gor Vardanyan, rector of the university.
The presentation of the “Telecommunications and Communication, IoT Systems” school program was also held during the event. Basically, this is an achievement of an important process that started in 2015. With a joint effort, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Viva-MTS, “Synopsis Armenia”, “Unicomp” companies and the ICT employers’ union have started implementing an ICT training program in high schools, which is a long-term investment in the direction of the specialization of young people in the ICT sector.
During the event, 3 laboratory stands were demonstrated and tested: “Smart House”, “Protected House” and “Smart Garden”.
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