Under the umbrella of the National Center of Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Criminology Research Lab, based at the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore is going to organize a free online webinar for all enthusiasts in the IT, Artificial Intelligence, Bio-informatics, etc sector.

“Future of Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies”

The webinar will be live for 1 hour on the 13th of September, 2021 from 03:00 pm – 4:00 pm.

We are extending our invitation to everyone to join this interesting future-oriented webinar.

Let’s learn together:

• Virtual Reality(VR) vs Augmented Reality(AR)
• Application of VR and AR
• Case Study: Virtual Reality in training and simulations
• Case Study: Virtual Reality in education
• Case Study: Augmented Reality in education
• Future Trends of Augmented and Virtual Reality

And much more!

Click on the link below to get yourself registered. You will be notified when the event is about to start.

https://bit.ly/3gUzO8k

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards.

“Centers of excellence are basically the brains of intellectual depth of any country, knowledge generates from these centers”, says Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhry, Director ICCBS, while speaking at the occasion of MOU signing ceremony between National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI KICS-UET) and The International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi. Collaboration between the two reputed research centers of the country is critical in solving research problems especially in the field of genomics, proteomics, medical imaging, drug discovery Artificial intelligence and to name a few. This collaboration is set to bring collaborative efforts in computer science and software development, High-end training by NCAI in the domain of Artificial Intelligence, sharing of omics data for research and development purposes and along with joint research publications and articles, submission of research projects/proposals to national and international funding agencies.

National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI KICS-UET) is designed to become the leading hub of innovation, scientific research, knowledge transfer to the local economy, and training in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its closely affiliated fields. The central aim is to facilitate the researchers in the field of AI; help them establish and grow AI industry following international trends whereas, The ICCBS, a federally funded national research institute and national laboratory site managed by the University of Karachi, is known for its dedicated focus and research in primarily in organic chemistry and natural products but takes research in environmental cleanup and other fundamental branches of chemistry including the computational, green, medicinal, and protein chemistry.

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhry, Director ICCBS coming all the way from COMSTECH secretariat Islamabad was given a very warm welcome by Dr. Waqar Mehmood, Director KICS, along with his team members at AL Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science UET Lahore. He was a given a very quick briefing by Dr. Usman Ghani Khan, Director Intelligent Criminology research lab, on multifold aspects and outcomes of the center working under his supervision. While having a look at the progress of NCAI and talking to the researchers Dr. Iqbal expressed his keen interest in future collaborations and he was of the view that “Centers of excellence are basically the brains of intellectual depth of any country, knowledge generates from these centers. KICS is a very high-quality center which can develop capacity in the frontier areas despite that it has great impact in Muslim world as well. These centers are the blessings should be supported and provided with a sustainable system which further strengthens their capacities and link them to the rest of the world”. Followed by the briefing and an interactive session memorandum of understanding between the two parties was duly endorsed with the signatures of Director NCAI, Dr. Usman Ghani and Director ICCBS, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhary.

At the end of the MOU Ceremony Dr. Waqar Mehmood, Director KICS, formally gave a thanking note and dedicated this collaboration as a beginning of a new journey that will open new avenues of innovative research in the field of AI as well as chemical and biological sciences. Giving away a souvenir to the distinguished guest the ceremony was concluded with a group photo.

KICS UET Lahore conducted Smart Classroom demonstration on July 14, 2021, in Weidong Smart Classroom located in Main Auditorium Complex at UET Lahore. Nominated Faculty members of the main campus from different departments attended this demo training session of the smart classroom. The demonstration was made live on zoom for faculty of other campuses as well. Faculty members actively interacted and shared their suggestions during this demo training. M. Tahir Naeem (POC IIOE & Smart Classroom) presented the demonstration and explained the different components and their functions during this demo. The faculty members also appreciated the efforts made by the IIOE team of UET Lahore especially Dr. Waqar Mahmood – Director KICS UET Lahore.

Huawei Pakistan in collaboration with the Higher Commission of Pakistan and NED University Karachi held the Pakistan Educational Summit on 7^th July 2021 with the aim to accelerate the digital value of education together. The event took place simultaneously with Global Huawei Intelligent Education Summit 2021 at NED, University of Engineering Technology, Karachi. The Summit was attended by Chief Guest, Governor of Sindh, Mr. Imran Ismail& Guest of honor, Vice Chancellor NED Dr. Sarosh Hasmat Lodi, Director HEC, Mr. Naveed Tahir, Managing Director of Huawei Mr. Gaoweiji and Director KICS UET Lahore Dr. Waqar Mahmood together with Vice Chancellors and Director IT’s from reputed universities.

Under the theme of ‘Accelerate the Digital Journey of Education, New Value Together’, the summit proved to be a strategic platform that provides an opportunity to explore the use of innovative technologies to promote the digital journey of the education industry, designed with the objective to facilitate innovation in teaching and learning management, thereby future-proofing educational institutions for the post-pandemic era. Together with support from leading education industry professionals, digital transformation practices from both industry & technology perspectives were discussed, demonstrating Huawei’s full-scenario robust solutions for the education industry.

Director KICS UET Lahore Dr. Waqar Mahmood expressed his views in a panel discussion while answering a question about CoVID-19 took the world by storm. How did the pandemic impact learning & education and how technology help in overcoming these challenges? He said that at the beginning of 2020, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 resulted in enormous impacts on over 190 countries worldwide, interrupting the education of over 1.6 billion students to varying degrees. To ensure normal teaching activities during the pandemic colleges and universities worldwide had to take relevant measures to switch to online teaching.

However due to issues such as poor infrastructure and inadequate capacity of online teaching, the digital transformation in higher education still faces many challenges. In the foreseeable future the “Internet + Education” model will become an important means for achieving equitable and quality Higher Education. The Rapid development of ICT not only drives the digital transformation of the society as a whole but also puts forward new requirements for talent cultivation, professional standards, teaching and management models in various countries.

Reinforcing the sentiment, Dr. Lodhi stated, “This event is happening globally and we are pleased to partner with HEC and Huawei, for hosting this summit at NED Karachi. The Summit have helped the educational institutes of Sindh in understanding digitalization needs that can revolutionize the entire sector”.

Also, the Executive Director HEC, Dr. Shaista Sohail spoke on this occasion and said,” This summit has great importance considering the pandemic and shift from traditional education to digital education. The goal of this event is to openly discuss the digitization requirements in education and global trends. Sessions were really informative and we hope that this summit will help the HEI’s to set goals for their digitization journey and HEC is already on track for same”.

Mr. Gaoweiji, Managing Director of Huawei Pakistan South Region also concurred, “Huawei will continue to invest in ICT solution R&D. Strong investment, provides a suite of ICT solutions for the education industry to assist in digital transformation & create new industry value.”

2020 was an extraordinary year for educational reform. Today, the education industry is facing rapid digitalization. The digital journey of the education industry has accelerated and there is a huge demand from both students and teachers to have teaching and learning resources available anytime and anywhere. This, in turn, has also led to higher demands on the construction and maintenance of advanced education ICT infrastructure.

On the occasion, the Governor Sindh remarked, “Higher Education Commission has done a tremendous job to help digitize the Higher Educational institute in Sindh and all across the country by providing connectivity through the PERN network, multiple IT services and thanks to Huawei for supporting them throughout their digitization Journey. Thanks to NED and HEC for arranging this summit in Karachi and helping south universities to get enablement on new technologies.”

At the end of this summit shields were presented to participants & guest as a token of appreciation by chief guest Governor Sindh Imran Ismail.

“Our IT sector couldn’t progress like India over the past few years but now UET is set to give it a direction,” says Minister Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfaraz while speaking at the closing ceremony of the Cadence EDA tools training program.

A specialized training program on Cadence EDA tools was organized at UET Lahore. A total of 16 trainees, 2 each from the 8 higher education institutes of Punjab got their hands on the Cadence tools. National and International experts shared their diversified experiences with the attendees. 9 days long training program was kicked off with an orientation session on 21st June 2021 which was conducted by Dr. Ahsan Tahir, and Dr. Obaid Fayyaz. These tools have a flow which is front end to back end so starting off with the front-end session organized by Dr. Bilal it was migrated to the back end. There was a special session with Mr. Irfan Qayum from Cadence USA on the synthesis tool. Towards the end of the training, Dr. Owais bin Altaf from LUMS had a session on back-end design.

The training program came to an end with a closing ceremony which was graced by the Honorable Minister Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfaraz with his presence as a Chief Guest. Director Al-Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood not only briefed the Chair on different aspects of the training but also thanked him for his unprecedented support in achieving this great milestone. “We are working in a very consistent manner, without wasting even a single day, so as to procure software and hardware components fairly in time,” said Dr. Waqar Mahmood.

“He is probably the first Higher Education Minister who does not only realizes the importance of the IT sector in Pakistan but also possesses the required knowledge of being expert of the field,” said Vice Chancellor UET Lahore, Prof. Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar in his thanking note. He expressed his great hope in this initiative saying, the Country would be able to give a sizeable contribution through this facility. Vice-Chancellor shared promising news and a success story of a young research team from UET comprising Dr. Tayyab, Dr. Tahir, Dr. Obaid, and Mr. Umar Shahid who have recently been qualified for the Google E-Fabex program for their unique chip design to control motion. It is a matter of extreme privilege and pride for UET that after being acknowledged by the Google IEEE Solid State Devices has committed to fully sponsor the project.

Minister Higher Education, Yasir Humayun Sarfaraz specially thanked VC UET, Prof. Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar, and Director KICS, Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood for their untiring efforts in the execution of the project. “Unfortunately, our IT sector couldn’t progress like India over the past few years but now University of Engineering & Technology Lahore is all set in the right direction and right path that will ultimately help IT sector of the country to touch the skies”.  He emphasized the importance of developing quality human resources that will help in job creation and ultimately boost the economy. “Although UET produces the best resources in the country we need to get more competitive in the international market,” said Raja Yasir Humayun. He assured his maximum support in incentivizing chip design technologies like India to get maximum traction and quality outcome.

The closing ceremony was concluded with the presentation of certificates, and souvenirs among the participants, and trainers of the Cadence EDA tools training program.