Mathematics is the driving force of love, justice, and progress. Mediamax and VOLO launch a joint project, MathArt. It will tell about the talents developing Mathematics in Armenia, and their work.

Mathematics is of key value in the modern world and we hope that MathArt will help attract Armenian youngsters into that particular science.

Habet Madoyan is a Doctor of Economics, data science specialist, a visiting lecturer at the American University of Armenia (Applied Statistics and Data Analysis), co-founder of Datamotus. On the crossroad of mathematics and economics, he “collects enormous amount of information on the palm of his hand”. He is a pro in data mining, processing, analysis and interpretation.

Habet Madoyan

Photo: Mediamax

He is a graduate of the Armenian State University of Economics with the specialization in Mathematical methods and operations research in economics, which is considered to be a direction of heavy math. After graduation he worked different jobs for a long time then left for USA to study.

Data science in Armenia

When I returned to Armenia there was not much interest in Data science back then. I started to study it. Our main clients have mainly been from abroad so far.

The quick analysis of huge amount of information became possible parallel to the rapid development of computing technologies. As for Data science, it has been in big demand in Armenia over the last 5-6 years. It is taught at the American University of Armenia, and we started a special Masters program in Data science from September.

Habet Madoyan

Photo: Mediamax

As for the professional market, we cannot limit ourselves to Armenia only. Moreover, it would be totally wrong to focus merely on our country, since the problems are diverse in the world. Nevertheless, there are serious companies in Armenia that develop this direction.

Data science experts are always searching and exploring

Big data, which is closely interrelated with Data science, is making a revolution. From the first glance it’s even impossible to imagine the enormity of the information we are speaking about.

They used to say that big data was about teenager sex: everyone is talking about it, but nobody knows how to do it, but everyone thinks that the others are doing it, thus they claim they are doing it as well.

Little by little people come to understand what big data is. Getting knowledge requires continuous education and is a round a clock process and you should not limit yourself to what you learn at the university only. There are numerous online resources. This science is for those who never tire of learning and exploring, because in reality what you learn today might outdate itself in a month.

I myself spend a couple of hours a day studying. There are students who are excelling already. It’s very important to have good students. When they ask a question and you don’t have an answer to it, it contributes to the development of your education. It is important for me that my students excel and become better than I am.

Another glance at the world

This sphere is entirely based on enthusiasts. Young people are curious and they know all too well that it is one of the most demanded professions of the 21st century.  Data science is for those mathematicians who don’t want to go into programming and are looking for something more interesting. However it requires more time.

Habet Madoyan

Photo: Mediamax

Data science requires a certain way of thinking and living. When you delve deeply into the theory of probability and statistics, your way of thinking starts to change and you start to perceive things differently. 

Continuous search for truth

This is an ideal profession for those who are on a mission to discover the truth. Each science deals with this issue, but in this area it is much more emphasized. You gradually come to understand how important probabilities are in everyday life and in the world in general.

Habet Madoyan

Photo: Mediamax

Life is made of a series of random probabilities which are not individually modeled. But when you connect them it becomes obvious that you can make predictions.

Probabilities and life

The theory of probabilities is extremely important and I think everyone should know its basics. People need it in terms of intuitive mistakes in order to be able to correctly evaluate the probability of events. If we pay close attention to things we’ll see that we are always counting probability, but very often we do not understand it.

Photo: Mediamax

For example, why do people often play lottery? If you play for a long time your average winning is always negative. So what is the problem? People never tell about how much they’ve lost at a casino, they tell about how much they’ve won. Thus, there is an impression that people always win and there are no losers. The problem is that probability is not about one or two such cases. Predictions can be made based on thousands of cases only.

The areas where this data can be used differ, for example marketing, pharmacy, agriculture, etc. When there is some uncertainty there are always preconditions for statistics and the theory of probability.

Marie Taryan

Photos by Emin Aristakesyan

VOLO is the general partner of the project