Dear friends,

I greet with respect and love our valuable students and teachers, all our graduates who add value to our university, and all persons who have so far contributed to the development of Azerbaijan Technical University (AzTU)!

Since its foundation in 1887, AzTU has been one of the long-established specialized industrial universities that contribute to research and development, education and training, and the socio-economic development of our country. Of great importance is also the close participation of our students and graduates not only academic activities but also in other fields. High technological and digital development in recent years has intensified global competition, so technological transformations are rapidly changing the world. Undoubtedly, the main source of this rapid change is innovation arising from knowledge-based ideas.

In this context, our main goal as an AzTU family is to form an ENTREPRENEUR UNIVERSITY that welcomes rapid technological change, embraces new innovations and priorities, supports sustainable development and continually expands research through industrial collaboration.

Research is no longer fit to university laboratories but is being transformed into new emerging industries. Thus, competitive KNOWLEDGE created at the University is commercialized and converted into products in Industrial parks, IT parks, Incubation centers, and enterprises of industrial partners in accordance with government and industry needs.

Digitalization, which is the basis of today's economic development, is leading to the loss of millions of jobs around the world and at the same time the creation of new jobs in the technology-based Industrial Internet of Things (IOT), Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and other areas created by digital technologies in the labor market.

Therefore, taking into account the needs of the labor market, we are developing our training and teaching model to prepare a new generation of engineers with contemporary knowledge and skills, considering  modern industrial cooperation. In this context, in order to have finger on the pulse of time punctually, we are applying new approaches in engineering training, identifying the needs of the labor market in the field of lifelong learning and entrepreneurship, revealing novel professions, initiatives and inventions brought by technological transformation.

That being said, as an Entrepreneurial University, we must take advantage of digital transformation and overcome challenges accordingly.

To do this, it is useful to implement the followings: 

1. Accelerate industrial cooperation to form an entrepreneurial ecosystem,
2. Strengthen technology transfer activities in transforming knowledge into commercial products;
3. Inclusion of new training in curricula to meet new needs for labor competencies resulting from the digitalization of the labor market, and the development of new interdisciplinary training programs related to them;
4. Expand the model of cooperation with industry in bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies, apply project training methods;
5. Focus on learning to learn and instilling lifelong learning skills based on the need of digitalization for the constant acquisition of new competencies.

We are pleased to welcome you at our university and wishing you good luck in all your endeavors!

Rector

Prof. Vilayat Valiyev