Science and Technology Convergence Forum kicked off in Yerevan
The European Union through its “Support to SME Development in Armenia” (EU-SMEDA) project supports the Science and Technology Convergence Conference (STCC) 2019, which is taking place on October 11-12. STCC is an annual conference co-organised by the IIAP of NAS RA andCatalyst Foundation(aSmartGateVC initiative). It is set to foresee the future of fundamental and applied research in Armenia. The conference brings together the community of researchers and engineers of different disciplines from both industry and academia that work on advanced technologies.
STCC provides a platform for:
- Discussing the roadmap towards creation of a solid Machine Learning PhD program in Armenia;
- Involving postdocs from leading universities to Armenia and discussing avenues for potential repatriation;
- Establishment of joint research labs with collaboration of US and European universities, and local established tech companies;
- Establishment of practical collaboration with European and US university labs.
The conference focus areas are: Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Electronic Design Automation, Robotics & IoT, Computational Biology, and Quantum Computing.
The speakers of the conference will share their experiences in the light of their openness for potential collaboration or potential replication of their (or their institution’s) experience in Armenia. There will also be a number of important announcements from the key players of the ecosystem. In parallel, there will be poster sessions for deep technical discussions.
The speakers and participants will be from among local scientific and university community, tech corporations, emerging local deep-tech startups as well as leading research institutions (Stanford, UIUC, Tampere, etc).
Some of the featured speakers are:
- Michael Kass, Distinguished Engineer at NVIDIA, PhD Stanford University
- Garegin Papoian, Monroe Martin Professor at the University of Maryland
- Sos Agaian, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the City University of New York (CUNY)
- Naira Hovakimyan, Grafton and Wilkins professor of MechSE at UIUC and Co-founder & Chief Scientist at IntelinAir
- Karen Egiazairian, Professor at Tampere University of Technology
- Ara Markosian, Head of Armenia Operations at Xilinx
- Aram Adourian, Partner at Flagship
- Ogsen Gabrielyan, Principal Scientist Bioinformatics at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma
- Al Eisaian, Co-founder and CEO IntelinAir
- Ashot Papoyan, Associate Director at Tetragenetics
- Will Zeng, Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University, initiator of Unitary Fund
- Anthony Miller, Managing Partner at Verify Markets
- Sergey Kuprienko, General Manager of Research at Ring
- Jovan Stojanovic, CEO at ELOON, lead of Belgrade AI
- Christophe Zoghbi, AI Consultant at Ticketless, lead of Beirut AI
- Bagher BabaAli, Assistant Professor at the University of Tehran
About Organisers
SmartGateVC
SmartGateVC is a Silicon Valley pre-seed venture capital fund backed by Tim Draper and a network of entrepreneurs and professionals from Bay Area (and wider US), Europe, and MENA. Our key focus areas are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Security, Internet of Things (IoT) and emerging Biotech, Quantum Computing and Blockchain.
Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems
Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems (IIAP) is a leading research and technology development institute of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) in the field of applied mathematics and informatics, as well as in the field of application of computing technologies in various fields of science and technology.
About supporters and partners
Support to SME Development in Armenia (EU-SMEDA)
The European Union’s EU4Business initiative is an umbrella initiative that covers all EU activities supporting private sector development in the Eastern Partnership countries.
SMEDA is co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the German Development Cooperation GIZ through the Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Programme.
SMEDA aims at improving the business and investment climate and is supporting the creation and development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enable broad-based growth in Armenia. In this realm, the project focuses on SME policy processes, strengthening business associations and economic clusters. Furthermore, the project supports various technology-oriented ventures and helps increase the competitiveness of existing SMEs by providing financial and technical assistance to develop new innovative products and services for domestic and global markets. Additionally, the project aims at stimulating the rate of technology absorption, technology transfer, innovation, and commercialization of research ideas in the private sector, and also fostering the collaboration between research centers and SMEs.
PMI Science (Philip Morris International)
Due to the country’s proficiency in the scientific and technological arenas, in 2017 Philip Morris signed Memoranda of Understanding with the Government of RA, Armenian National Polytechnic University (Polytechnic) and Yerevan State University (YSU) setting out PMA’s intention to establish Philip Morris R&D facility in Armenia, as well as to support educational and research programs including Master’s and PhD research projects.
PMI has invested over USD 6 billion since 2008 in fundamental research, product development, scientific substantiation and product capacity behind our portfolio of smoke-free products.
Renderforest
Renderforest allows businesses and individuals create high-quality videos, animations, logos, websites and various designs directly in the browser.
The company was ranked among the Top 100 Software Companies of 2019 by G2 Crowd. Now, Renderforest has over 15 million users with over 20 million created projects.
EU TUMO Convergence Center for Engineering and Applied Science
The EU TUMO Convergence Center for Engineering and Applied Science is a state of the art STEM ecosystem in Yerevan, Armenia. A hub for research, education and startups geared towards university students and young professionals, the center will bring together partners, both local and international, to bridge the gap between higher education and industry in Armenia. It will be based in the newly constructed, 15,000 square meter campus, located on 1.5 hectares of land adjacent to the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies.
The campus will be a nexus for collaboration including infrastructure for educational programs, a shared STEM research laboratory and hub, and a conference center. This lively neighborhood will also host the French University in Armenia’s (UFAR) Faculty of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.
Zero
ZERØ’s first line of products was built to solve one of the legal industry’s most pressing problems – email management. In an age where lawyers are performing an increasing amount of work from their mobile devices, law firms are finding that they are losing profitability because lawyers are unable to accurately capture and record that billable time. By intelligently automating administrative tasks, ZERØ for iOS and Outlook helps increase lawyer productivity and profitability.
Fronty
Fronty is the world’s first web page design to source code converting service powered by AI. Founded by one of the most successful freelancers on Upwork marketplace, Fronty generates high-quality websites just in few minutes. Users can easily modify their websites with Fronty’s built-in editor and can go live - all in one place! Fronty is meant to save plenty of human hours by using AI - at the same time improve the quality and the speed of the websites.