The acronyms stand for:

1. IB-TDS: Industry-Based Talent Development System

2. ARC: Advanced Research Center

3. RPL: Rapid Prototyping Lab

4. AMTC: Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (formerly the EC Factory)

5. Journals: EC Journal, IB-TDS Journal, ARC Journal, Manufacturing Journal, Products Journal

6. Lectures: The Friday Afternoon Lecture Series

7. AEW: Armenia Engineering Week

On the top of this temple are the products, technologies, and systems. This is because, the final outcome of the Engineering City are the products, technologies, and systems that the engineering company create. Everything on the slide exists to enable these creations. In other words, the purpose of everything else on the slide is to create the conditions for this to happen, and to happen competitively. This is why it is highlighted with a different color.

The market horizontal indicates that all EC companies work and compete in the marketplace. The main source of financing for most companies is the marketplace. The marketplace is a tough and unforgiving place. More so that the majority of the products are exported to the internatioal markets. Surviving there indicates the quality of our products and companies.

The industry horizontal indicates that the EC companies create, develop, and strengthen the Armenian industrial sector of the Armenian economy. They actively work in developing advanced industries most of which did not exist in modern Armenia – industries like automotive, semiconductor, aerospace, RF and communication, electronics, smart manufacturing, biomedical, and education. This by itself is a huge contribution to the development of Armenia.

The company horizontal belongs to the EC companies. The companies are the core of the Engineering City. This is why it has been highlighted in a different color. They produce the products, they form the industries, and they develop the people. The EC is the initiative of these companies and it is these companies that make the Engineering City. They are the pumping heart of the Engineering City and the gauge of its health.

The pillars on which the companies solidly rest represent the support that the Engineering City provides to the engineering companies. This support strengthens them in their competitive positions in the marketplace. The number of pillars have been increasing with time roughly matching the three major transformations of EC’s purpose:

1. Engineering Sector Formation and Engineering Popularization

2. Acceleration of Engineering Development

3. Engineering Leadership

Each pillar has its own history of becoming. If we go deeper into the pillars by one level, we can see the following evolutions of these pillars:

• We engaged in education from early on. Yet our efforts in education were sporadic and chaotic. Later, it got formalized in a methodical way in the “Talend Development System” (TDS), which then evolved into the “Industry-Based Talent Development System” (IB-TDS).

• The EC Factory evolved from firstly being a place of learning the production processes into becoming a research ground for new manufacturing processes and technologies. It became the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (AMTC).

• Product research inside the companies evolved into technology research in the Advanced Research Center (ARC).

• The general prototyping labs evolved into the Rapid Prototyping Lab (RPL) that will be operational soon.

• The Armenia Engineering Week (AEW) evolved from being a promoter of engineering and a showcase of Armenian engineering capabilities to a leadership platform where visionary keynote speakers share their visions.

The EC Community is what connects everything together. The more the interactions between the people with each other and between the companies with each other, the stronger the community. A strong community is a competitive advantage that is difficult to reproduce elsewhere. If the pillars could be somehow re-created in one way or the other, then the community is something very difficult to recreate. It could be said that the one competitive advantage that the EC has is its community.

And finally the botom horizontal is given to the Armenian Engineering Heritage. Eventually, all the products, solutions, technologies will become part of the History of Armenian Engineering and enrich the Armenian Engineering Heritage. This gives a long-term purpose of everything we do. This is also why it has been highlighted in a different color.

To summarize, we can see the following movements on this slide:

• The Pillars support the Companies,

• The Companies develop the Products,

• The Companies form the Armenian Industries,

• The Companies develop the People,

• The People develop the Community,

• The Products enrich the Heritage.

The only long-term constant in this picture is the Armenian Engineering Heritage. The products, technologies, solutions will age and die out at some point to give rise for new products. The industries may change, the companies may transform, the people may pass on. What remains is the Heritage. By our daily work, we are in fact enriching the Armenian Engineering Heritage and writing the history of Armenian Engineering. And what is history? History is the story. The story assures continuation, the heritage assures accumulation. If there is no attempt to write the story and enriching the heritage, then all what we do are shots in the dark – shots that were heard, at some point in time and then disapeared forever.

Hence, it could be said that the purpose is the story, not the products, not the industries, but the story of Armenian Engineering. Hence, the green arrow on the slide taking us from the products that we are creating straight into our story.

Having a history, having a heritage and consiously writing it and enriching it gives a deeper meaning to everything that we do. And a deep meaning is an enormous strength.

This is also why we must create yet another museum at some point – a museum of modern engineering. If the current museum is a museum that froze in the year of 1991, then the museum of modern engineering must contain the story of the current times. And we have already lots to show.

From the description to the video clip:

Immanuel Kant wrote about Armenians at the end of the eighteenth century, in “Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View”.

Kant speaks of Armenians as a people living among different countries and peoples, engaged in trade and building connections across a vast space.

By the end of the eighteenth century there had been no single independent Armenian state for several centuries. And yet for Kant the Armenians exist as a distinct people — recognizable, noticeable far beyond their own territory, and possessing their own enduring traits.

What allowed them to preserve themselves without a state? How can one live among different peoples, be connected with them, and not dissolve? And why did Kant single out the Armenians among the peoples of his time?

This film examines what Kant wrote about Armenians, how in the “Anthropology” he understood the “character of a people”, and what conclusions can be drawn from this about the much longer history of the survival of the Armenian people.