YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. This year the best Diaspora Armenian student category was included in the President's annual IT educational award ceremony under the initiative of RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan and the first to receive this award was Iranian Armenian student from the Yerevan State University Arada Malekian (1st prize) and Iraqi-Armenian student from the State Engineering University of Armenia Vartan Maral Gnuni (2nd prize). Arada and Vartan were among the 23 university students and 7 schoolchildren to win during the 5th award ceremony. Attaching importance to the educational awards to Diaspora Armenian students during the ceremony at the presidential residence, RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan emphasized: "Armenia's natural resource are Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora. The Armenian people are proprietors of the free Armenia and we must use the know-how, capabilities and experience of all Armenians for the strengthening and development of the country. First-prize winner Arada Malekian sees her future career in science in Armenia and would like to make a difference in the development of science in Armenia. The President's educational awards for the best IT students are granted by the consent of RA President Robert Kocharyan in April 2005, as well as the contract signed by the "Synopsis Armenia" CJSC and the "Hayastan" All-Armenian Fund. During the ceremony, vice-president in charge of corporative marketing and development of strategic markets of "Synopsis", Chief Executive Director of "Synopsis Armenia" Rich Goldman stated that the best students in the IT sector would be the true leaders for Armenia’s progress. According to Goldman, "we must work toward preparing engineers for the future and connect Armenia to the rest of the world through the Internet and information technologies." Executive director of the company Hovik Musaelyan said: "Apparently, we are helping raise the future generation of economists, scientists and also politicians." The RA President's educational award is funded by the "Synopsis Armenia" company. The first award ceremony took place in 2005 with awards granted to the 18 best students in the sphere of information technologies. In 2006, 19 students were granted the educational award. In 2007 the committee on granting the annual awards chose from 148 candidates and granted awards to 27 students. In 2008, there were 29 students out of 134 candidates and in 2009, 23 students were selected out of the 50 students from the State Engineering University of Armenia, the Yerevan State University, the College of Engineering at the American University of Armenia, the European Regional Academy, students from the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, as well as 60 candidates from the A. Shahinyan specialized school for physics and mathematics, the "Quant", Anania Shirakatsi, the "Foto" college in Gyumri and the "Eurica" college in Vanadzor. RA President Serzh Sargsyan received the award-winners, the administration of “Synopsis” and "Synopsis-Armenia". The president granted Rich Goldman a special award for his contribution to the functioning of the award ceremony for the best students in the IT sector. The award-ceremony is part of the series of annual events entitled "Week of Synopsis in Armenia" (September 26-October 2). Among the events are the finals for the Armenian Olympiad of Micro-electronics, the ceremony for granting awards to graduates of the "Synopsis" university programs, the lectures of "Synopsis" president and chief executive of "Synopsis" Chi-Fun Chan and R. Goldman and the Digitech exhibition. "Synopsis" is the world leader in the sphere of automatic electronic planning and supplies necessary projected plans for planning, checking and producing radios, as well as intellectual copyright and other services. "Synopsis" started its activities in Armenia in 2004. The "Synopsis Armenia" CJSC is one of the most important branches of "Synopsis" and has over 400 engineers.

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