On May 4, 2012, U.S. Ambassador John Heffern joined Armenian Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan, USAID/Armenia Mission Director Jatinder Cheema, and Rector of the State Engineering University (SEUA) of Armenia Ara Avetisyan to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, whereby USAID will partner with the Ministry and SEUA to establish the Armenian National Engineering Laboratory on the University’s campus. As part of this public-private partnership, USAID will contribute equipment, software, and technical assistance, and the Ministry will support the renovations of the laboratory space at SEUA. The goal of the project is to strengthen the educational capacity and enhance the research potential of the university by upgrading and expanding SEUA’s laboratory facilities and teaching skills. The Armenian National Engineering Laboratory (or ANEL) will consist of laboratories covering six major directions of SEUA (Radio Engineering and Communication Systems, Cybernetics, Power Energy, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical and Machine Building Engineering, and Transport Applications). ANEL will provide students with a combination of technical training and research opportunities to prepare them for engineering projects as professionals.

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