Foundation for Armenian Science and Technologies (FAST), Defense Ministry of Armenia, and the Hi-Tech Cyber Security have announced the launch of “Unit 1991” program.

The program will provide young people of conscription age additional knowledge of data science and AI, which will help them prepare to serve in the “Unit 1991”. Application deadline is 20 December 2019. The training, which is completely free of charge, will start on 28 January 2020.

FAST Vice President for Advanced Research Initiatives David Sarkisyan has shared a few details about the new program with Mediamax.

The beginning of collaboration 

Cooperation with the Defense Ministry started in February 2019, when we organized a five-month training course for the ministry’s working group on modern technologies. We taught the selected members of the military about data science and artificial intelligence. They can use that knowledge in both the army service and civilian life as well, be competitive in the labor market.

We decided to make the cooperation more institutional and signed the trilateral memorandum in September. That was the beginning of the collaboration in the frames of “Unit 1991”.

Photo: courtesy of Defense Ministry of Armenia

Specific features 

FAST secures the content of the training and we organize the lessons for young people who will be conscripted in summer of 2020 and qualify for the “Unit 1991”.

The five-month training will be held until the summer draft. It is designed to help the future conscripts prepare for conducting scientific and technological studies in AI.

David Sarkisyan

Photo: Mediamax

The applicants are going to be at varying levels of competence. Some of them are high school graduates and others have higher education. We will divide them in groups because we’ll have both school graduates and university students.

We will hold 4 lessons a week in the first quarter of the training and 3 in the second quarter.

The applicants

We are going to establish the minimal level of knowledge and skills for applicants instead of establishing a maximal amount of students, because we want as many people as possible to attend the lessons.

The applicants will have to pass the initial test first and then come to the individual interviews, which will show their potential and level of education. It’s important to determine if the given applicant is able to reach the level we outlined in 6 months.

David Sarkisyan

Photo: Mediamax

In the future, we will expand the scope of the training to include cybersecurity, robotics and other areas of interest for the armed forces.

The content 

The training consists of two parts mainly: the first is introduction to mathematics and coding, the basic knowledge the applicants need to have to understand machine learning and artificial intelligences, and the second one is introduction to data science and machine learning. The lesson topics include linear algebra, analytic geometry, mathematical analysis, and neural networks. We ought to take the students’ competence to the level where they can build working prototypes. They will be supposed to present graduation projects in the end of the training.

Photo: courtesy of Defense Ministry of Armenia

The lessons will be taught by FAST staff, including specialists with experience in teaching corresponding subdivisions of the Defense Ministry and top experts of Armenia’s innovation ecosystem.

Prospects of the army-FAST cooperation 

FAST will provide the educational component for the army as well. We plan to organize more complex courses for the graduates of “Unit 1991” program. The training will last four to six months and include intensive lessons, during which the participants are going to obtain more in-depth knowledge and work on concrete projects.

Persons eligible for “Unit 1991” program can apply here. If you have questions, please address them to 1991.ai@fast.foundation or call +374 60 74 00 44.

Marie Taryan