YEREVAN – The American University of Armenia (AUA) and Mentor, a Siemens business and US-based electronic design automation leader, initiated a mutually beneficial collaborative relationship back in 2012. Since then, AUA researchers have annually engaged in joint research projects on a wide variety of topics, including data compression, mechanical stress modeling and calibration, circuit analysis, chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) of computer chips, and machine learning. The projects were conducted with annual research funding from Mentor.
“We highly value our long-term collaboration with Mentor. The joint research projects have developed a strong link between academia and industry. Not only do our faculty members benefit from this collaboration, but also our students get the opportunity to acquire firsthand experience by being part of research teams, as well as interning at Mentor,” noted AUA President Dr. Karin Markides.
In March 2020, Dr. Markides, accompanied by Dr. Aram Hajian, dean of the AUA Akian College of Science and Engineering (CSE), Artur Khalatyan, chair of the Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Systems Management (ME IESM) program and CSE industry liaison, and Narek Ghazaryan, director of Communications, visited Mentor’s local office. Sedrak Sargisian, development engineering director at Mentor, and Irina Dumanyan, Mentor-Armenia site manager, welcomed the AUA delegation and briefed them on the recent milestones reached through their collaboration.
“The AUA/Mentor partnership is a win-win collaboration. Mentor gains access to top researchers who help us solve issues that are important for our technology and product development. And AUA gains access to industry-leading IC design technologies. In addition, upon the successful completion of each project, we publish joint research articles,” remarked Sargisian.
AUA and Mentor Joint Research Projects
Dr. Hayk Nersisyan, chair of the CSE’s Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BS CS) program, together with AUA Adjunct Associate Professor Dr. Michael Poghosyan and Adjunct Lecturer Dr. Arnak Dalalyan, became part of the research collaboration of AUA and Mentor in 2017. They worked in parallel on two projects lasting two years each.
