ISLAMABAD:
Ahsan Iqbal, the federal minister for planning, development, and special initiatives, urged universities on Monday to move quickly to launch new courses in entrepreneurship and exports for students that would benefit the nation’s economy.
He was addressing at COMSATS University Islamabad’s two-day 19th International Conference on “Frontiers of Information Technology” (FIT-2022) (CUI).
Speaking at the event, the federal minister emphasised the significance of information technology in the modern world, particularly for Pakistan’s economic development.
The seven-point framework for universities, academic excellence, research and innovation, social community service, technological enablement, corporate governance, industry-academia connection, and product quality was also presented by Ahsan Iqbal.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Executive Director of COMSATS, Ambassador Dr. Mohammed Nafees Zakaria, shared his observations and praised the efforts of the FIT organisers for giving researchers, scientists, and industry practitioners from all over the world a prestigious platform to present their cutting-edge research as well as share the most recent industry insights.
He said that COMSATS has a focus on developing domestic capability and competency in cutting-edge sciences and technology.
Furthermore, the Commission is working to ensure that a sizable portion of the population, particularly in the Member States, benefits from technological breakthroughs in the fields of education, health, and energy.
Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi, co-founder and CEO of KnowlEDGE Streams (Private) Ltd. in Pakistan, gave a keynote speech to the dignitaries, students, and technical specialists in attendance.
Dr. Naqvi emphasized the significance of bridging the academia-industry divide in his speech titled:
“Bridging the Academia-Industry Divide” and outlined many projects that have produced creative solutions in modern Pakistan.
He emphasised the crucial actions that must be taken for entrepreneurial endeavours to be successful.
In his welcome speech, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Tabassum Afzal, Rector of CUI, expressed appreciation for the government’s assistance in fostering research and development.
He claimed that Pakistan lacked high-performance computing infrastructure and that greater training and resource management were necessary to realise the economic potential of information technology.
According to Prof. Afzal, the economy’s cash shortage can be quickly resolved by promoting IT-related exports and technology-based enterprises.
The two-day conference, held at the COMSTECH Secretariat in Islamabad, is being organised by COMSATS University Islamabad and has speakers from France, the Netherlands, China, Ireland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Pakistan.
The technical agenda of the two-day conference will include a number of guest speakers, and a PhD symposium will provide PhD students the chance to present their ongoing research and get input from professionals in the field.
A panel discussion with the title “Make in Pakistan: Need Assessment for a Strong Policy to Strengthen Indigenization” will be held on the conference’s final day.
The conference, which has been held annually at COMSATS University for the past 20 years, has a very competitive acceptance rate among Pakistani IT circles.
Since its inception, the conference has supported the development of new IT fields, and this year it attracted the interest of professionals from a variety of fields, including Software Engineering, Pattern Recognition, Image and Natural Language Processing, Data Science, Water Informatics, Smart Grid, Energy and Electronics, Signal Processing, and Cyber Security.
