In honor of Armenian History Month at USC, the Institute of Armenian Studies hosted a conference in collaboration with the Armenian Society of Fellows titled, “On the Cutting Edge of Science and Tech: CA and Armenia Together.” The conference showed the intersection between science, technology and the Armenian diasporic experience in California.

The event featured lectures from Armenian scientists who displayed their recent endeavors and panel discussions with key figures who have helped enhance Armenian education and the connection between California and Armenia.

Shushan Karapetian, director of the Institute of Armenian Studies, opened the event by underscoring the enduring history between the two regions.

“The groundbreaking Armenian American scientists and tech innovators you will hear from today, and the driving forces that lead them to collaborate, invest and engage with Armenia are precisely at the heart of our Institute’s mandate for studying the contemporary Armenian experience, one that is simultaneously local, national and transnational,” Karapetian said.

Her opening remarks were followed by a video put together by the Institute for Armenian Studies, which delved into the history of the Armenian diaspora and the development of the institute’s oral history project, California History Through Armenian Experiences, at USC.

Part of the institute’s mission is to contextualize the connection between Armenians in the United States by compiling information from Armenian historical archives, and increase the public’s knowledge of the Armenian diaspora, according to speakers in the video.

Ani Aprahamian, moderator of the event and vice chair of the Armenian Society of Fellows, provided insight into the mission and progress of ASOF. Founded in 2021, ASOF is an international network of experts, faculty and academics specializing in various disciplines. Their goal is to enhance the Armenian education system to meet global standards, Aprahamian said.

“A part of our vision for doing that is to help achieve the full potential that the Armenian nation is capable of,” Aprahamian said.

Anthony Portantino, former California state senator, underscored the importance of integrating scientific perspectives into politics and recalled his experience visiting Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.

“I saw firsthand how excited and talented the intellectual capital was there, and the people, the delegations that I took with me — the other politicians from around the state of California — were also extremely excited by that exchanging of ideas,” Portantino said.

To close off the opening remarks, a video from Eleni Kounalakis, lieutenant governor of California, highlighted the importance of collaboration between educational institutions in California and Armenia.

The series of keynote lecture presentations was kicked off by Sarkis Mazmanian, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, who presented his research into Parkinson’s disease. After working with microbiologists to develop therapies to treat the disease, he found that delivering drugs to the gut might be more effective than delivering them to the brain.

Following Mazmanian was Vahe Petrosian, a professor from Stanford University. His presentation, “Gravitational Lensing: Measuring the Universe the Way Einstein Said Could Not Be Done,” explored the origins of the universe and of life.

He spoke about the potential for a better understanding of the universe through the utilization of gravitational lensing — a phenomenon that causes the distortion of a large celestial body’s spacetime curvature, causing it to appear bent, as if by a lens.

The final keynote lecture was delivered by Armen Aghajanyan, co-founder and CEO of Perceptron AI. Aghajanyan spoke about his company’s theory on the future of labor and AI.

The first panel discussion highlighted the achievements and progress of individuals who have worked to strengthen the Armenian education system by bringing their university expertise to the region.

Speakers included Thomas Lee, associate professor of clinical ophthalmology, Kate Weber, director of Public Exchange, and Yannis Yortsos, dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering.

After spending two years in Armenia as a part of the Peace Corps, Weber said she learned what resilience looked like during a time when the country had been recovering from a large earthquake. Her time spent in Armenia also showed her the time it required to truly understand a new culture.

Weber talked about the potential for the model of the Public Exchange — a social impact program harnessing university expertise to solve global issues — to be adopted in regions worldwide.

“If someone was to try to replicate a program like ours in Armenia … it would be very important that that person was Armenian, understood the society in which they lived and the incentives that we’re bringing different people together to collaborate,” Weber said. “That’s just essential for building good partnerships.”

Yortsos highlighted the strong relationship between USC and the American University of Armenia, especially with regard to advancing science and technology in academics. He also talked about the interdependence between humanities and science, saying people need to understand the origins of scientific discovery.

“Science and technology raise a point in which people accept it as a given, without paying attention to how we ended up being here,” Yortsos said. “They don’t understand that we all work on the shoulders of giants … That story has not been taught.”

The second panel discussion featured individuals in technology who are of the Armenian diaspora. They highlighted the main struggles of advancing education and subsequently science and technology in Armenia.

“In order to have the right educational input from the schools, it is more important to develop the school system, high schools and middle schools, and even here in the elementary schools, and to educate them so that they can become the right students in the universities,” said Hagop Panossian, founder of the Analysis Research & Planning for Armenia Institute.

Yervant Zorian, president of Synopsys Armenia, spoke about the rise of startup businesses in Armenia that proved the potential for technological success in the region.

“In some sense, it’s not that we don’t have talent in a diaspora. There’s just not an effective utilization of it,” Aghajanyan said, adding to the idea that rather than a lack of talent, it’s a lack of proper execution of these talents that Armenia faces.

To close off, Vatche Sahakian, executive director of ASOF, said the fellows see three promising directions they hope to go towards: engagement in higher education to align Armenia with international standards, collaborating in cutting-edge research and economic collaboration in high-tech industries in California.

“Doubling down on our commitments to the arts, the sciences and education builds the scaffolding to get us to better times, to survive, then thrive,” Sahakian said.