YEREVAN, Armenia – On May 8, the American University of Armenia (AUA) hosted the second annual Zaven P. and Sonia Akian College of Science and Engineering (ACSE) Student Research Showcase at the AUA Najarian Building. Sponsored by the Afeyan Family Foundation, the event brought together students from the ACSE for a large-scale competitive poster session presenting student-led research and projects.
More than 120 individual and group projects were showcased during the event, many of them developed under the supervision of ACSE faculty members and adjunct lecturers from industry. The showcase featured research and capstone projects from undergraduate and graduate programs across the college. This year’s event also included capstone presentations by graduating students in the Bachelor of Science in Data Science (BSDS) program.
Throughout the event, attendees had the opportunity to engage directly with presenters, discuss research methodologies and findings, and exchange feedback with students in an academic and industry-oriented environment. The showcase created space for research-driven dialogue, connecting students’ innovative ideas with faculty and industry perspectives while encouraging future collaborations and continued development of research initiatives.
Among the attendees were First Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia Gevorg Mantashyan, AUA President Dr. Bruce Boghosian, AUA Provost Dr. Alina Gharabegian, and Irina Seylanyan, CEO-designate of the Afeyan Initiatives for Armenia, who visited the showcase to explore the presented projects and interact with participating students.
In his remarks, Mantashyan emphasized the importance of student research and innovative ideas in strengthening Armenia’s technology ecosystem. He presented the Government’s “AI Virtual Institute” initiative, which offers 100% subsidized access to computing resources for students, researchers, and high-tech companies with five to 100 employees, in cooperation with Amazon Web Services, Mistral AI, and Plug and Play. He noted that most applicants in the first phase are students, reflecting strong youth interest in AI and innovation․ The second application phase will open this month and last 40 days, with students encouraged to actively participate. Mantashyan concluded by expressing appreciation for the initiative and praising the impressive work being done to advance innovation in the sector.
Reflecting on the experience, student Narek Meloyan (MSCIS ’27) shared: “It was a real pleasure to present my research at the AUA ACSE Student Research Showcase 2026. Having also participated last year, I could clearly see how much the event has grown — not just in scale, but in the depth of student engagement and the maturity of the work on display. I believe the impact a research project carries is what ultimately defines its value, and across very different domains, the projects presented were clearly aimed at making a real difference in their respective fields, which, to me, feels like a genuinely promising sign for where research at AUA is heading. I hope this momentum continues, and that each project grows into the impact it has the potential for.”
Dr. Reza Malekian, ACSE dean and director of the Engineering Research Center at AUA thanked the ACSE students, faculty members, program chairs, judges, and guests from industry, as well as the public sector for their contributions. “I am very impressed by the quality and creativity of the research projects presented during the AUA Akian College of Science and Engineering Student Research Showcase Day. We are proud of our students for their hard work, innovation, and excellent presentations, which not only showcased their research achievements but also highlighted the important role of science and engineering in addressing societal challenges and engaging with the wider community,” he remarked.
Poster presentations were evaluated by 12 judging teams composed of faculty members and industry professionals. Projects were assessed based on research methodology, presentation quality, results, and oral communication skills.
Dr. Aram Hajian, program chair of the Master of Science in Computer and Information Science (MSCIS) and associate director of Engineering Research Center noted, “The showcase was twice as large as last year’s inaugural edition, with a broader footprint of research spanning a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines. Special appreciation to the Afeyan Family Foundation for their sponsorship and endorsement of the effort for us to grow our research activity at AUA, with an emphasis on cultivating in students a passion to conduct research and innovate.”
Dr. Habet Madoyan, chair of the Bachelor of Science in Data Science (BSDS) program said, “This is the first time that data science capstones are being presented as posters rather than as slide presentations. We introduced this format for several reasons. First, we wanted to expose student research to a broader audience. Second, we wanted all of our graduating students to experience what a scientific conference environment feels like. We observed significant interest from industry representatives during the event, and some students even received job offers directly on the poster floor. I would also like to mention that many of our students submitted their capstone theses to various conferences, and we hope they will have the opportunity to present their work in broader scientific settings as well.”
This year’s showcase reflected the growing research culture within ACSE. Through the poster session format, participants communicated their work in an interactive setting that encouraged discussion, exchange of ideas, and direct engagement with attendees. The event also highlighted the diversity of research interests across the college and marked another step in the continued development of student research presentation practices within ACSE.
The showcase concluded with an awards ceremony recognizing 16 outstanding projects with Trophies of Excellence. The awarded projects included:
Computel: An Accurate Tool for a Comprehensive Analysis of Telomeres — Anahit Yeghiazaryan (BSCS ’26), Davit Tarverdyan, Tatevik Jalatyan
Physics-Informed Neural Network Approach in Predicting Dynamics of Ising-like Zimm-Bragg Systems — Meruzhan Khachatryan (BSDS ’26)
Beyond Full-Spectrum Classification: A Deep Learning Framework for Informative Band Identification in Multi-Excitation Hyperspectral Imaging — Narek Meloyan (MSCIS ’27)
FITON: Flow-Based Inpainting for Efficient and Detail-Preserving Virtual Try-On — Mher Beginyan (BSDS ’26)
Development of Robust Communication Protocol in AI-Driven Video-to-Voice Navigation for Visually Impaired Users — Mane Koshkaryan (BSDS ’26)
Development and Evaluation of an Automatic Speech Recognition System for Armenian — Ani Harutyunyan (BSDS ’26)
Decoding Hidden Regimes in Markov-Modulated Random Walks — Arina Pambukyan (BSCS ’26)
Chess Weakness Identifier — Veronika Khachatryan (BSDS ’26)
Bridging PID tuning and Swarm Control: A Reinforcement Learning Simulation Stack for Quadcopters — Armen Mkrtumyan (BSDS ’26)
Sequence Labeling for Low-Resource Syntax: Automatic Punctuation of Armenian Participial Clauses — Albert Hakobyan (BSDS ’26)
Multimodal Galaxy Imagery Fused with Photometry for Redshift Modeling — Arpine Janunts (BSDS ’26)
Inference of Team Formations and Tactical Roles from Broadcast-Derived Player Trajectories — Husik Sargsyan (BSDS ’26)
Feature Selection and Prediction in Oral Diseases Using Machine Learning Approaches on Metagenomic Data — Davit Hakobyan (BSDS ’27)
Population Genomic Insights into Caucasian Grapevine — Lusine Gevorgyan (BSDS ’26)
Agile Reconfigurable RF Analog Front-End for Wideband Communication Receiver (WCRF) — Erik Hovakimyan (BSES ’26)
A Machine Learning Study of Higgs Boson Signal Discrimination in the Four-Lepton Channel — Mane Papoyan (BSDS ’26)
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.
