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The official opening of the first two fablabs in Armenia took place at “Ayb” School. Fablabs have been established at the school “Ayb” in Yerevan and the Central School of Dilijan.

The event was attended by the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. The President was informed about the state of affairs in the process of introducing innovative labs in Armenia which started in 2013 in frames of cooperation between Ayb School and the MIT, supported by VivaCell-MTS and the Central Bank of Armenia. The program is widely known across the world because of its capacity to encourage applied learning.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of “Ayb” Foundation Father Mesrop Aramyan and VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian spoke at the official opening.

Fablab is an exclusive program with large-scale impact for the introduction of “smart” laboratories in Armenia, which is aimed at helping education become more applicable. Fablab is a workshop-laboratory, equipped with special devices and materials that allow the use of innovative technologies in various fields of science and produce samples of “basically everything”.

Fablabs will give an opportunity to foster the research in the production of prototypes in the spheres of physics, robotics, technologies, mechanics, etc., in “Ayb” School and Central School of Dilijan, and also will serve as research platforms for young Armenian scientists.

2013 through 2015 VivaCell-MTS allocated AMD 92 million for the implementation of the project.

“I’m delighted that VivaCell-MTS is part of a project of national scale – opening of the first FabLab in Armenia based on the model of the worldly known MIT. There is a rule in business – do not do replicate whatever is being done by others. Differentiate from others, find your competitive advantage, develop your capability to make it distinctive, and reach the point where your capability is unique, and not easy to replicate. This is how one can create a valuable asset. The words of Archimedes are fully applicable in the Armenian context – give a young Armenian a lever and he will turn upside down the world. As Armenians we can do nothing but to invest in the education of our youth for giving them the lever – to turn the world upside down through finding our unique Armenian distinct capability based on cutting edge technology. This is how we can generate the bases of unique Armenian productivity culture! ” VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian said.

Fablabs were created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now get actively spread worldwide. The projects implemented in fablabs are related not only to innovative technological solutions, but also to novel business approaches and research in the spheres of manufacturing, robotics, design, architecture, agriculture, etc.

In 2013 “Ayb” educational foundation initiated the project of establishing the first two fablabs in Armenia in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA), the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, and VivaCell-MTS.

For introducing the concept of fablabs in Armenia “Ayb” has held lengthy negotiations with the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. In the course of negotiations “Ayb” and MIT specialists have studied the list of fablab tools and discussed the expediency of their usage in the context of Armenia; only then “Ayb” has acquired the full package of fablab equipment, which comprises:

• a computer aided laser cutter
• a computer aided milling machine for large prototypes
• antennae, printing blocks
• 3D printers
• other tools and projects.