2018 laureate of RA State Global IT Award, co-founder of National Instruments, Dr. James Truchard meets ICT community at VivaCell-MTS

ArmInfo.Dr. James Truchard, co-founder of National Instruments, and the 2018 laureate of RA State Global IT Award James Truchard was hosted today at VivaCell-MTS headquarters. Dr. Truchard is the ninth laureate of RA state global IT Award.

Before the short lecture, Dr. Truchard gave a joint press conference with RA Acting Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Hakob Arshakyan, VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian, coordinator of RA State Global IT Award Committee Hovik Musayelyan, as well as the President of the Engineering Association Council Aram Salatian.

Hakob Arshakyan welcomed the guest and extended his gratitude prioritizing the immense contribution James Truchard had in the breakthrough development of engineering. “Awards like this are very important for our country especially as the government has a vision to make Armenian a country of high technologies, with industrial, and scientific and technical opportunities. By visiting Armenia, people, who have major contribution in IT, and whose efforts have brought qualitative changes in the world, bring with them their valuable experience and higher recognition to Armenia,” mentioned the Acting Minister.

“The Global IT Award as a project continuously implemented in Armenia is more than an effort to solidify Armenia’s place on world map of ICT or to increase the country’s prestige. It is critical that the award brings to Armenia true innovators, whose breakthrough inventions have defined the path of global development, and that these people lecture for the Armenia ICT community and younger generation. The laureates of the award, just like the geniuses in all times, have never mimicked their predecessors, have never chosen a roads treaded before, and have never tried to fit into the existing rules of the game. Armenia has the intellectual potential, which will not only foster its ICT development as the country’s competitive advantage but will also help to create a new quality in the industry to stand as equal by the side of the ICT giants, in the long run,” Ralph Yirikian said.

“Armenia’s competitive advantages are closely connected to IT. And there is no coincidence Armenia has an award for global contribution. Those are contributions, which have been breakthroughs for humanity. We are proud that world legends visit Armenia every year reestablishing our country’s reputation and renown,” said Hovik Musayelyan, Director of Synopsis Armenia, and coordinator of the award committee.

“This year the awarding committee has named Dr. James Truchard, the co-founder of the National Instruments, as the awardee of 2018. Dr. Truchard is the co-author of the LabView, structured dataflow programming language, which synchronizes with scientists’ and engineers’ thinking at measurements. National Instruments leads in the direction and approaches, which scientists and engineers use to solve global problems like accessibility of alternative sources of energy, natural resources, development and digitalization of pharmaceutical and healthcare systems,” President of the Engineering Association Council Aram Salatian said.

In his presentation delivered at the meeting with the representatives of ICT community, Dr. Truchard touched upon a number of spheres, where National Instruments works. The co-founder of the National Instruments said: “I wanted to create system software for test and measurement that did what the spreadsheet had done for financial analysis.”

When asked about the prerequisites of success as an engineer and business leader, Dr. Truchard answered that his personal growth was in line with the growth of the Company and the challenges it has faced. He told that besides on-job-training, he has been reading a lot, including books on marketing and sales.

In response to a question about the potential of Armenian youth, Dr. Truchard told, in particular, that Armenian youth can compete very well on the global scale and that here National Instruments can be a role model. Armenians can start companies and keep working here in Armenia, where they are, and not have to go somewhere else. And National Instruments can be a role model for young Armenians so that they become successful in participating in the global economy. “Armenia for me has been a very important part of the world where National Instruments has been working, and I recognize the strong level of Armenian talent in this sphere, and one of my goals over the years has been to help Armenian engineers contribute and participate in the global IT economy”, said the GIT laureate. “It is an exciting time for technology development and I believe Armenia is well-positioned to participate in this new exciting time of internet of things, autonomous vehicles, etc. Scientists and engineers in Armenia are well equipped and had passed personal learning and technical trainings, and I hope National Instruments can help provide access to global technology opportunities as well”, Dr. Truchard added.

Dr. James Truchard has arrived in Armenia to receive the state award of the Republic of Armenia. The awarding ceremony will take place on November 30 at the residence of the Prime Minister of Armenia. The annual award was founded in 2009 by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Armenia and is granted annually to an individual, whose internationally acclaimed contributions to IT have resulted in near-revolutionary or revolutionary developments that have positively impacted or hold the potential to positively impact the history. In 2018 the award has been renamed into State Global IT Award.

The winners of recent years are prominent figures like former CEO of “Intel Corporation” Craig Barrett, the Co-Founder of “Apple Inc.” Steve Wozniak, Chairman Emeritus of “Synaptics, Inc.” and President of “Federico and Elvia Faggin” Foundation Federico Faggin, former CEO of “Hitachi” Tsugio Makimoto, Chief Development Officer of “Sysco Systems” Mario Mazzola, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of “Kaspersky Lab” Eugene Kaspersky, one of the founding fathers of Internet and CEO at “Open-Root” Louis Pouzin and the founder of “Nest labs”, the creator of “iPod” Tony Fadell.