How the partnership with Interhouse started?
Huawei Company has been operating in Uzbekistan since 1999. From the early years, we tried to establish mutually beneficial relations with local network operators, partners, state organizations and educational establishments. Currently Uzbekistan is on the way of Digital Transformation where ICT technologies development and improvement of ICT infrastructure play one of the biggest role. However, we should not forget also about the role of human resources with professional knowledge and young talents, which will lead Uzbekistan to become digital. Due to this Huawei company cooperates with local IT universities as well as universities in other various spheres and specialized middle education establishments to help grow digital talents and improve digital skills.
Huawei’s partnership with “International house Tashkent” lyceum started in 2017. It was joint pilot project on introduction of digital technologies into the sphere of education – “smart” class opening. The main aim of the project was to apply modern technologies to improve educational process. The solution allowed students and teachers to conduct lessons in interactive way using smart podium and smart board and didn’t’ limit education by one class room anymore. Video conference system installed in the smart class opened the way to distant education that was successfully used during the pandemic in 2020. We are glad that our joint project of 2017 for many years has been proving its importance and contribution to development of digital education in Uzbekistan.
The partnership with lyceum was not only limited with opened smart class. In 2019 we conducted trainings for pupils of Interhouse Lyceum in our showroom to provide basic knowledge in ICT and introduce young generation to innovative solutions such as 5G, IoT, cloud technologies. Technologies develop very fast, so we always try to keep our showroom updated with latest technologies and it is always open for students of Interhouse to learn something new.
Why did your company choose our lyceum?
There is no special reason why Interhouse lyceum was chosen for “smart” class project. But we can see how management of Lyceum on daily basis takes efforts to widen educational opportunities for its pupils. This year Huawei was invited to take part in the opening ceremony of the Center for Talent Identification which was held in cooperation with the Higher School of Economics in your lyceum. This is a big step to experience sharing on international level and young talents development. Huawei decided to support the work of Center with donation of intellectual board Idea hub. This smart well-designed solution gets distant education and communication to new level of interaction. It can support the work of the Center with limitless knowledge sharing and meetings arrangements without loss of deep interaction between the teacher and student. We hope it will effectively serve lyceum and students.
What advantages does your company get from cooperation with our lyceum?
Huawei has a global initiative “Tech4All” where we realize our corporate social responsibility by taking part or arranging projects contributing four key domains: improvement of connectivity between people and organizations especially in rural areas, education, healthcare and mitigation of climate change. “Education4All” is a part of this initiative and covers projects on improvement of access to education. Cooperation with Interhouse lyceum is also a part of “Education4All” initiative as we contribute to support local talents using latest technologies, such as Idea hub or “smart” class concept. It is a mutual advantage for Huawei – to make its contribution to development of local talents, and for lyceum – to educate more talented youth for Uzbekistan – to make the future of next generations brighter and more digital.
What is your next goal regarding partnership with our lyceum?
Huawei company partners not only with Interhouse lyceum itself but we are also a long-term partner of TIIAME. Recently we have accomplished big job in implementation of “smart” agriculture and water resources project with institute. This pilot project was realized based on 5G connection, IoT (Internet of Things), intellectual sensors, agricultural drones, solar systems and cloud technologies for analysis of collected data. Professors and staff of TIIAME together with Huawei experts demonstrated how agriculture and water resource management might become smarter and more efficient upon application of digital innovations in these spheres. The initiative of “smart” agriculture project belonged to our deeply respected Mr. Uktam Umurzakov and in his memory and in the memory of our big achievements in past we will continue to support and cooperate with TIIAME and Interhouse lyceum in future proposing innovations and smart solutions.
Tell us about the results of the work that has been done in Uzbekistan for the past year. What are your next steps?
I have already mentioned our global initiative “Tech4All” which is directed to support sustainable development. In Uzbekistan we pay big attention to contribute to local social development. Last year we launched initiative “Green Uzbekistan” in frames of which we joined Green Aral Sea project of UNDP Uzbekistan. This is crowdfunding platform to plant the dried bottom of Aral Sea with saxaul trees. Huawei Uzbekistan joined the project by covering 30 000 plants for two years and we will continue to support this harsh area by making our small contribution. As for educational sphere, this year we concluded memorandums of understanding with IT universities for opening of ICT Academy and training of teachers in latest ICT directions such as cloud technologies, AI, big data, etc. We hope to cover more teachers and students with ICT skills basing on the ICT Academy and conducting our annual educational project “Seeds for the Future”. This year will be the 7th year of “Seeds for the Future” in Uzbekistan and very soon it will be launched for students of five universities. We hope that one-day graduates of Interhouse lyceum who chooses IT professions and becomes students of local IT universities would also become a part of Seeds for the Future project to get deeper into ICT knowledge.
Can you give any advice for the students who with the help of your company will be studying in comfort using new technologies?
The world has changed for two years, pandemic taught us to take more care about our health, it transformed our daily lives showing the value of digital technologies to continue “new normal” life. Now we can’t stop this process of transformation and we need to stimulate its development taking the best from our experience. Digital technologies in educational sphere will make the processes faster, more efficient and available for easy access. I wish Interhouse lyceum students and management team to take more benefits from digital transformation and to consider implement more projects in the campus. Big opportunities are opened for making wireless “smart” campus on the basis of cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and wi-fi coverage. Huawei from its side is always open to share its expertise and provide innovative solutions.
Liu Jiaxin, General Director Huawei Uzbekistan
(Лю Цзясин/ Lyu Szyasin)