Yerevan /Mediamax/. Interview of the Chairman of ABBYY Company Board of Directors, one of the initiators of the “AYB” project David Yang to Mediamax and Banks.am portal##

David Yang is the Chairman of ABBYY Company Board of Directors, which has created such famous software, as Lingvo and FineReader. Today, 128 Lingvo dictionaries in 10 language directions are used in 138 countries of the world, and each second scanner in the world is equipped with FineReader text identification software.

David Yang was born on June 3 of 1968 in Yerevan. In 1992, he graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the faculty of general and applied physics. Being a fourth-year student of MIPT, David set up his first company - BIT Software, which was later on renamed into ABBYY.

In mid-June, David Yang, together with his supporters, held a meeting with the President and the Prime Minister of Armenia in Yerevan, during which they discussed the project to establish ALH “Gymnasium of the Future” in Yerevan.

- David, how was the idea about establishing the club and “Ayb” Educational Foundation born? When did the realization of the project start and at which stage is it now?

- To be as exact as possible, there are three structures with the same name - “Ayb Club”, “Ayb Educational Foundation” and “Ayb Learning Hub” (ALH).

All the founders of “Ayb” are graduates of MIPT, most of them have finished Yerevan school for physics and mathematics. All that we have achieved in life became possible due to the education we had. And thus, during all our meetings we discussed how we could help both our school and the education system of Armenia in general.

The idea lived in us all the time: when our friends left to study abroad, later on when we did, and then – our younger friends. Everyone had aspiration for something, everyone achieved something and everyone wanted to help the ones, who were coming next. We added something else to what we received from the elder friends, and then passed it to the younger ones, but, what is more important is that we very much wanted them to do the same. We all wanted to return to the origins and to make the “wheel of our fates” continue going round. It was very important not to limit ourselves to doing one-two good things, but to build a system, which would unite people, who put together their not that volume financial resources to reach goals, which are important for the society. The club, or “Ayb” community, unites those people - people, having ideas, investing money in implementation of those ideas and having their own participation in the fates of the younger generation.

Our meeting in Moscow in February, 2006, can be considered beginning of “Ayb”. Exactly then the crystallization of idea took place, the general picture was formed and a decision was made on who the leader of the project and what the further concrete steps will be. The formation of the team took place in summer-fall of the same year, and in December “Ayb” Educational Foundation was officially registered. In May, 2007, at the general meeting of the founders, we approved the Regulations of “Ayb” Club, which is a community of people, who realize the importance of education and who are united in the name of developing education.

An important peculiarity of the Club is the mentorship institution. Each member of the Club is a mentor for the graduate children of the Foundation programs in the process of their education and career development. The programs, realized by the Foundation, are projects to set up exemplary models. Basing on Yerevan school for physics and mathematics, we established model educational laboratories for physics and chemistry, and they have no analogues in Armenia. We elaborated and realized a program on selecting and preparing children - the graduates of the program already study in MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and in MIPT.

“Ayb” Educational Foundation was established to accumulate financial resources and to manage those. The Foundation is realizing a number of projects in the sphere of education - building physics and chemistry laboratories, managing those, organizing contests and competitions (the latest one was the Kangaroo competition, and “Ayb” helped Armenia to become its member), elaborating method materials, realizing research in the sphere of education.

The largest project of “Ayb” Foundation is “Ayb Learning Hub” in Qanaqer. ALH is a conceptually new education environment, where the school (gymnasium of the future, as we call it) plays the main role in the community. Now we are at the stage of implementing ALH conception in the form of an architectural project, and to that end, we are organizing an international architectural competition.

- In mid-June you and our supporters met with the Armenian Prime Minister in Yerevan. In the course of the recent months Tigran Sarkisian has been repeatedly stating that education issues should be the main priority for Armenia. What will the practical cooperation of your Foundation and the Armenian authorities be?

- The Armenian government fully supports the initiative of “Ayb”, moreover, it expressed readiness to have direct participation in the project. This is very important, since “Ayb Learning Hub” is not just a nice and new idea about education environment, but it really claims to become a model for the national system of school education in Armenia.

It is pleasant that the priority of the given issue is stressed not only by the Prime Minister of Armenia, that the issues of education are not only in the center of attention of the President, but that the society in general deeply realizes the priority of education as a basis for building new and better future. This is already noticeable, and this inspires with greater optimism concerning the future of the project.

- What will the main difference of the educational structure, meant for 800 students, which you plan to set up in Yerevan, be from other secondary and higher educational institutions? Do you plan to invite foreign teachers to participate in the education process?

- We will try to find outstanding local teachers, as well as contribute to revealing new ones. Outstanding foreign teachers will also be involved in the process. At the same time, the very concept of ALH educational center provides for intensive communication among students from different parts of the world, between students and teachers, and among the teachers as well - for more compete and efficient education to be achieved. In particular, it is planned that ALH will have both a professorate staff on contract basis (from 1 to 5 years) and frequent short-term invitations, forums/conferences, master classes, etc.

When we studied, there were giants among the teachers (I will not name them, since they were not many and I do not want to offend the ordinary good teachers). The most important is to establish an atmosphere and a system, which would provide for revelation of luminary-teachers on the spot. Since many of us (I mean anyone) owe our development to one Teacher, whose influence goes beyond the frames of the subject taught and is necessarily related to upbringing, formation of the personality, help in choosing the Path and moral support.

ALH school’s peculiarity is that it already today in fact has its own “Alumni Club”, which makes it a School with the capital letter, since the fact evidences that this establishment can “produce” successful people, who are united by common values and who some time later after graduation come to help their Alma-Mater and assist the process of regenerating people like them. The “Alumni Club” of “Ayb” school is a virtual club of graduates, but it is no less real than any of the clubs in the world.

Author of David Yang’s photo – S. Shahijanyan