National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) welcomed His Excellency Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Singapore, to its campus. On arrival, the minister was received by NUST Rector Dr. Muhammad Zahid Latif and Pro-Rector for Research, Innovation and Commercialization (RIC) Dr. Rizwan Riaz at the NUST Centre for Emerging Technologies (CEMTECH). The visit brought the foreign minister of Singapore to one of the leading universities of Pakistan, and it began at the centre that the university has set up for work on new technologies. The reception by the rector and the pro-rector shows the importance that the university gave to the visit.
The foreign minister appreciated the remarkable progress that NUST has made in just over three decades, in particular its wide ranging academic ecosystem and its growing contributions to research and innovation. He also expressed interest in exploring avenues for academic and research collaboration between institutions of higher learning in Singapore and NUST. The areas that he named for cooperation were robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, which are the fields that CEMTECH, the venue of the reception, is designed to support.
In his remarks, the rector conveyed his gratitude to Dr. Balakrishnan for visiting NUST. He expressed the keen interest of the university in developing academic and research linkages with institutions in Singapore, and he gave the minister an overview of the university. In the overview, he highlighted the global standing of NUST and its institutional strengths. The rector therefore responded to the interest shown by the minister with a statement of readiness on the side of the university, and the discussion set out the basis for cooperation between the universities of the two countries.
The visit did not produce a signed agreement, according to the information that has been shared, and no specific projects or timelines were announced. The statements of both sides focused on the wish to explore collaboration, with robotics, AI and other emerging technologies as the fields that the minister identified. For NUST, the visit offers an opportunity to present its research and its work at CEMTECH to a senior official from a country that is known for its universities and technology sector, and it adds to the contacts that the university holds with institutions abroad.
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