September 21, 2015
WARC 鈥 Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Chyngyz 鈥 I graduated AUCA in 2015, then started working in the Office of the CIO as a Special Assistant in Analytics. Also I helped to create the WARC [scheduling] application.
WARC 鈥 How did you come to work for the Office of the CIO?
Chyngyz 鈥 I was really amazed how they were making new stuff and making changes at AUCA. And once I received an e-mail that they were hiring and I was like, 鈥榃hy not try and just send them an e-mail?鈥 Then they called for an interview and after that I started working at AUCA.
WARC 鈥 What projects have you been involved with as part of the OCIO team?
Chyngyz 鈥 The Shared Service Center, their terminal application. Also the Continuing Education Center鈥檚 electronic boards, the cashless system, outsourcing to Elsom and KICB. We don鈥檛 deal with money anymore. Also all the other projects with OCIO.
WARC 鈥 How does it feel, to go from studying at AUCA to working here? What have you learned, working 鈥榦n the other side,鈥 so to speak?
Chyngyz 鈥 I鈥檝e learned that it鈥檚 pretty much the same. Previously, I thought that it would be different for me to perceive myself as staff as opposed to a student. But actually I didn鈥檛 notice any changes. Like, I鈥檓 coming here, as [if] I鈥檓 a student: taking my classes, doing my homework. Pretty much I still do programming like I did during senior year.
WARC 鈥 Tell us about your experience of developing the online scheduling system for the WARC.
Chyngyz 鈥 It was pretty interesting. Since my sophomore year I thought 鈥榃hy didn鈥檛 we use an online system,鈥 because we have online registration and all this stuff. But eventually someone here, one of you guys, decided 鈥楴o more papers, let鈥檚 keep it new.鈥 I was amazed, we have people here who want to change the world. That鈥檚 why I thought, 鈥榃hy not?鈥 and I鈥檝e been happy to work on the WARC scheduling application.
WARC 鈥 What have you learned about the WARC in the process of developing this program?
Chyngyz 鈥 In this process I鈥檝e learned that you have a blacklist. I鈥檇 heard about it, but now I have the opportunity to see why you can go to [the] blacklist and for what reasons. Now I know all the policies of the WARC and know exactly how you work and your schedule. It鈥檚 really amazing work done in this center.
WARC 鈥 The program is still in its early days, but are you seeing the benefits of this application?
Chyngyz 鈥 Sure, it can be used in many universities. Nowadays, I鈥檝e heard that almost all universities that have [a] WARC are still paper based; even Bard is still using paper-based registration for the sessions. I think that we can export this application to other universities and show them what we鈥檝e done in this small country of Kyrgyzstan and maybe it can help AUCA and WARC.
WARC 鈥 What are we still working on, in terms of the WARC scheduling system?
Chyngyz 鈥 We鈥檙e fixing the edges. Not everything is done in the right way right now. There鈥檚 scheduling errors, it鈥檚 not automatically renewing, and all this stuff. I think we will fix the edges and it will work perfectly.
WARC 鈥 Any word of advice for AUCA students?
Chyngyz 鈥 Study hard.
WARC 鈥 Any advice related to WARC or the system?
Chyngyz 鈥 Keep it close to how you did in these last years. I really benefited from the WARC. I鈥檓 not a brainiac in math. That鈥檚 why I used WARC a lot in these last years because math鈥檚 getting harder and harder each year. Thanks to WARC I graduated even!