PyData Yerevan Conference Celebrates Its First Triumph in Armenia

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YEREVAN, Armenia — On August 12-13, the American University of Armenia (AUA) Zaven and Sonia Akian College of Science and Engineering (CSE), in collaboration with NumFOCUS, a non-profit organization in the United States, hosted the premier globally recognized data science conference, PyData Yerevan 2022. The conference was also made possible thanks to the support of established companies in the industry, including platinum sponsors Quantori and NVIDIA, gold sponsors Plat.ai, AimStack, GridDynamics, and WorldQuant, and silver sponsor LabelMe.

The two-day PyData Yerevan conference piqued the interest of over 350 data scientists, software engineers, developers, researchers, and machine learning specialists from various companies in Armenia and abroad, as well as students, and data science enthusiasts. The participants had the opportunity to explore a wide variety of topics, network with one another, and connect with the PyData Yerevan community. With over 50 practical talks and hands-on tutorials that covered topics on cutting-edge practices and tools in data processing, management, analytics, and visualization, the conference was hailed a huge success. 

CSE dean and organizer of PyData Yerevan 2022, Dr. Aram Hajian, delivered the opening remarks officially inaugurating the conference. “We are thrilled to be the host of the first PyData conference here in Yerevan as we continue to support students, faculty, researchers, and industry professionals who comprise this dynamic community of data scientists,” he remarked. 

Data Science program chair, PyData Yerevan chapter co-founder, and organizer of the conference Dr. Habet Madoyan highlighted the significance and overarching goal of the conference and elaborated on future plans, “We started the PyData Yerevan chapter a few months ago, and are currently holding monthly meetups and planning for an annual international conference. PyData has chapters in over 200 cities worldwide, which organize annual conferences all over the world. We are very happy to be a part of the international PyData community. Stay tuned for news on our next monthly meetups and the announcement of PyData Yerevan 2023.”

The first two sessions of the conference featured keynote speeches by Dr. Fritz Obermeyer, principal machine learning architect and lead developer of the open-source library Pyro, and Wolfgang Weidinger, data scientist and president of the Vienna Data Science Group. They spoke on “Probabilistic Programming” and “Data, AI, Hype and Fear-Recipe for Disaster?” respectively, providing new insights for real-world applications. “I was very excited to have the honor of holding the keynote at the first PYDATA in Yerevan. While talking to the participants, I felt a lot of enthusiasm and enjoyed the dynamic vibe at the conference. I listened to some amazing talks and look forward to the next edition,” remarked Weidinger.

A dynamic atmosphere prevailed throughout the conference, forming new bonds among members of the largest data science community. “The conference was full of interesting people and possibilities to make new friends. The talk about graph neural networks, the area of my own specialization, was especially interesting for me. The afterparty was also gorgeous and yet another opportunity to meet new people,” noted Hrach Yeghiazaryan (BSDS ‘24), one of the attending AUA students.

PyData Yerevan will continue to expand its horizons by paving new paths for advancing data science in the world. Meanwhile, we are looking forward to DataFest Yerevan 2022, scheduled for September 2-3, and set out to enrich the field by gathering under one roof data scientists, machine learning companies, students, and tech enthusiasts.

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 in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values. 

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