GLENDALE, Calif. — Perhaps appropriately, the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE), an enterprise to foster the progress of high technologies in Armenia, came into being with the new millennia, in 2000. Back then, Armenia’s economic recovery was just picking up, and the new group sought opportunities to make the country the Silicon Valley of the region. By 2011, UATE came up with the vision of opening engineering laboratory schools for Armenian children to be known as Armaths. In a dozen years, Armaths were established in dozens of settlements of Armenia and Artsakh, as well as in Georgia, Kuwait, Germany, India, and Bangladesh.
In some circumstances, the Armath engineering school labs function under the auspices of local community organizations (as in France and Kuwait); in other cases, foreigners basically purchase the Armenian brand to set up their own Armath schools. “We provide the concept and the curriculums that they adapt to their requirements and circumstances,” Lilit Haroutyunian, the PR manager, said in an e-communication commenting on franchising the Armenian brand in foreign countries.
UATE has effectively cooperated with several Armenian-American IT companies like Sada, ServiceTitan, Disqo, BluIP, Zero Systems, as well as VMWare, with the latter becoming a partner in establishing Armath engineering schools.
After setting up offices in Europe and several countries in the East, Armath came to the United States last month by opening the first Armath lab school in Glendale, CA. “This is an important beginning to launch the program in the world’s second most Armenian-populated center,” noted Hayk Chobanian, the executive director of UATE, at the opening ceremony.
Armath was established at the Academy USA Center of Glendale, in close cooperation with AESA (Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America) in the presence of a delegation from UATE’s headquarters in Armenia, their American partners, and local Armenian community representatives. As Hayk Chobanian noted, Armath has successfully become a pan-Armenian brand and has effectively gained international recognition. He was, he continued, sure that the opening of future laboratories will not be delayed. Council-member and former Mayor of Glendale Ardy Kassakhian was present at the event.
