Presentation of ISTC Research Projects Held at AUA

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YEREVAN, Armenia ‒ On December 5, 2018, the Manoogian Simone College of Business and Economics (CBE) of the American University of Armenia (AUA) held a public event titled “Presentation of ISTC Research Grant Program Projects’ Outcomes.”

The Innovative Solutions and Technologies Center (ISTC), with support from Enterprise Incubator Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Armenia mission, initiated the ISTC Research Grant Program (IRGP), which aimed to encourage collaboration between the scientific community and industry, R&D promotion and commercialization. CBE faculty members were awarded  IRGP grants and have completed two projects that also involved AUA alumni. The final outcomes of these projects were presented at this public event.

The two projects presented at the event were:

Machine Learning Based Credit Scoring Using Local Credit Dataset: Credit scoring remains one of the main tools used during the loan provision decision-making process.The objective of this research was to develop a credit scoring model specially designed for use by microfinance institutions that are typically characterized by dataset issues mainly because of the scarcity of data on borrowers’ financial status. The approach contributed to the existing models on credit scoring by comparing the performance of artificial neural networks against conventional and widely used econometric techniques given the availability and size of the data. The research team used data from an Armenian Universal Credit Organization which contained financial and non-financial variables of more than 9,000 borrowers of agriculture loans over a period of 2012-2017 years.The research team included AUA faculty members Vardan Baghdasaryan, Aleksandr Grigoryan, Hrant Davtyan, and Knar Khachatryan.

Structuring Financial Documents Through Artificial Intelligence: There are many existing standards in the financial sector, yet the documents available in the industry and in its different areas are usually inconsistent. Therefore, the available data is unstructured and cannot easily be analyzed. The goal of this project was to develop a product that would ensure the uninterrupted realization of the whole process of matching, extraction, transformation, analysis, and reporting of financial data. The research team included Nare Banduryan and Hrant Davtyan, AUA, as well as AUA alumni Mher Matevosyan (MSE ‘18) and Robert Yenokyan (BAB ‘18).

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, and affiliated with the University of California. AUA provides a global education in Armenia and the region, offering high-quality graduate and undergraduate studies, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting public service and democratic values.