«DigiTec-2014» princesses

The number of women involved in high tech sphere in Armenia is rather respectable. In the developing countries the number of women involved in the IT sector is only 10%, in Armenia the number exceeds 40%. Although the number of female programmers is growing annually, yet a few women occupy high ranking posts at IT sector. It is rather possible that we will be soon having “network queens”, the ones like Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Executive Director, Marissa Mayer and Susan Wojcicki, Vice Presidents of Google, Carol Bartz, executive of Yahoo, Mitchell Baker, the Executive Chairwoman of the  Mozilla Corporation, Esther Dyson, Yandex member of Board of Directors, Caterina Fake, the co-founded the Flicker and Hunch websites.

The interview is with DigiTec Expo-2014 participant girls who study at the Armenian State Architectural University College and are the future programmers.

14 years old Greta Aleksanyan is the youngest among the DigiTecExpo 2014 participants. She designed and engineered a robot machine that distinguishes colors. Greta presents her work to the exhibition attendees.

“This is my first concept. I have attended three-month long robotics engineering classes and this machine was ready on the last third month. I will engineer robot machines later on as well, I recently realized that it became my hobby”, Greta tells. She is the future programmer and her parents are very eager for the decision she made.

17 years old Lusine Maghakyan’s parents are programmers too. Moreover, her elder sisters have already graduated from the University and work as programmers.

“I belong to the first generation of this College; I entered it 6 years ago and only a few of us were girls. I want to become a computer security technician”, says Lusine who lives in Hrazdan city. She also made attempts in robotics engineering and this year she presented a Eco Robot machine made of junk. The machine has been created as a result of teamwork. The machine takes funny pictures with the help of convex and concave mirrors effects.

17 years old Lilit Nazaryan lives in Yerevan and has already managed to engineer a couple of robot machines. The machines are engineered to perform different tasks. The one presented past year could construct bridges when meeting an obstacle. It was moving forwards without any challenge.

“I wish I could become a cyberneticist or radio-technician. I am a future programmer; I deeply admire and live with mathematics and physics. There was a time I used to play piano, I still like music and currently I collect money for buying a synthesizer” Lilit says.

16 years old Anna Avetisyan succeeded in both information technologies as well in diplomacy. She attended trainings and participated in the contests by UN Armenia and currently voluntarily assists the personnel in organizing competitions.

“I have engineered many robot machines and during the past year Expo we demonstrated a Scorpion- like machine, which could hit the object in front and changed its way. The robot machine was mainly designed for children’s entertainment”.

It was due to Anna’s brother who recommended her to study at the College. Of 21 students only 6 are girls in her course, but the number of girls entering the College is increasing annually, the future programmer added.

By Arman Garibyan