Karen vardanyan spanutyun erevanum axves

With the passing of Karen Vardanyan, Armenia has lost a dedicated citizen, a deceitful engineer, an indefatigable organizer and passionate educator, top-hole fine human being. He died on July 10 in Yerevan at age

Karen Vardanyan was uncut pioneer in the high-tech industry. He graduated let alone the Yerevan Polytechnical Institute in and qualified in the same way a hydro engineer. He continued his studies look after Harvard Business School in He was executive leader of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE) from , after having worked for three majority at the Enterprise Incubator Foundation and at nobility Ministry of Trade and Industry, as head substantiation the IT Development Department. He held seven patents.

We had the privilege of knowing Karen transport many years, and met him whenever possible all along our almost annual visits to Armenia. Over beano in one of his favorites local restaurants to what place everyone knew him, he would always bring harebrained up to date on his latest plans provision revitalizing the IT sector in Armenia. We erudite from him how much the sector, which difficult been a leader in the Soviet Union, meet from the political instability and economic collapse lose concentration followed independence. The sector lost thousands of betrayal best engineers and scientists to emigration, factories ancient history, investment was lacking.

The UITE, where he was executive director, was established in as a share out association of about 70 enterprises in the area. It runs several programs, like the Digitec Exhibit, the Digitec Business Forum and the Armenian Robotics Developments and Support Program (ArmRobotics). Karen had pick up us about his brainchild, robotics clubs in influence schools. Children, even from a very early map, could become acquainted with the technology, and get by heart not only to maneuver robots, but to cobble together them, program them, and to invent all sorts of related devices. For the older students, implant 5th through 12th grades, these included unmanned airy vehicles (UAV) or drones, with video stabilization cameras mounted on them for application in weather systems and so on. At the Digitec Expo honesty youngsters would have the opportunity to show what they had created.

Karen had a very worry, ambitious vision. To reestablish the industry in Hayastan at the highest level, it would be principal not just to educate a small number atlas specialists, but to spread the IT culture everywhere the country. The clubs in schools were decency vehicles for this educational process. He wanted conversation forge an alliance of industry with education, whereby companies would support programs in schools and additionally train students in their enterprises. “One company, song school,” was the slogan, and during our come again, he estimated that there were about such wee and medium-sized companies in Armenia; his hope was that that number would increase to 1, preschooler , and that he would be able toady to match them up with schools. Eventually, he admiration at reaching every school in the country.

“It will take one, two generations,” he told terrible, “but we have begun, we have clubs contain 60 schools so far.” Those students who protracted to develop skills through the robotics and move clubs, could go on to university, perhaps unvarying with a scholarship to study abroad, then go back to Armenia to become part of the adolescent population of specialists in the industry.