A well thought out and strategically outlined project “Supporting the Establishment of a Computer Science MSCS Program in the University of The Gambia” convincingly comes to its conclusion. This report is a synopsis of activities that took place amidst collaboration between Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), UET Lahore and the University of the Gambia (UTG) under the umbrella of IsDB Technical Cooperation Program.

Technical Cooperation Program under ISDB provided an opportunity to Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), UET Lahore to assist the University of Gambia (UTG) in the training of their faculty and staff, development of curriculum for MS CS program and to provide design consultancy on newly established Faraba campus.

Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS) at the University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore conducts research & development activities in different domains of IT such as software systems, embedded systems, wireless & networking technologies, information security, and industrial automation. It was envisioned as an institute for advanced and high-quality applied research working in collaboration with industries & other academic institutions on national and international levels to bring about the IT revolution in Pakistan and help build a knowledge-driven economy.

Whereas the University of the Gambia promotes equitable and sustainable socio-economic development of communities through relevant high-quality gender-sensitive teaching, research, and outreach programs. It is developing its information and communication technologies, and infrastructure as a driving force for the education of more people more rapidly and for the improvement of efficiency and academic quality to attain the goals of poverty alleviation and national development.

KICS provided its expertise in establishing the Computer Science MS CS program at the University of the Gambia and the design and documentation of the IT infrastructure for its new campus. The project’s main objective was to support the UTG’s needs in enhancing the capacity of its faculty members of the computer science department in the areas of Theory of Computation, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning. KICS also supported UTG in the training sector by providing trainings to the UTG staff of the Information Technology Department in the areas of Cyber Security and ICT Infrastructure Technologies.

Following activities were carried out in accordance with this project:

1. The faculty members of KICS developed the customized curriculum including 10 courses for the MS CS program
2. UTG faculty members had a 4-week training session at KICS
3. IT experts from KICS visited the University of the Gambia for the site surveys and requirements gathering regarding the IT Infrastructure design & documentation for its new campus
4. IT staff members of UTG visited KICS for the training program
5. The overall coordination and quality assurance of the project was managed by Dr. Waqar Mahmood, Director KICS UET Lahore and Sultan Qaboos Chair.

“We are delighted with what we have seen and the interactions we have had, especially the hospitality. The training in terms of content, material, and instruction, was given satisfactorily. We have learned a lot in all the interesting areas that we have covered from machine learning to cyber security and artificial intelligence.”

Dr. Mbemba Hydara
Dean School of ICT
University of the Gambia

Prime Minister’s Skills Development Program aims to develop the expertise of Pakistani youth in demand-driven and employable skills with formal education by providing high-end and high-tech skills, introducing reforms in the skills development sector, promoting inclusivity by focusing on gender disparity, marginalized youth, and youth workers in the informal sector. The state-of-the-art national job portal with smart categorization based on area, trade, expertise, gender, etc. is also connected with 100 plus career counselling & job placement centers (CC&JPCs) across the country for in-person career counseling.

The purpose of this program is to promote Pakistani products, businesses and create employment opportunities for youth and enable the Government to generate additional foreign remittances.

Keeping its tradition, Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science has successfully completed the 3rd batch of the Prime Minister Youth Skills Development Program sponsored by National Vocational and Technical training Commission (NAVTTC). In this program, 6 months high tech trainings were provided to the students in Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning; Deep Learning), Data Science (Data Engineering, Data Mining), Game Development and Modelling, Industrial Automation and Networking, & Cloud Computing Technologies.  These courses also included international certification of HCIA Datacom, HCIA Cloud Computing, HCIA Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft Azure, and HCIA Security. The Professional Development Centre (PDC), KICS UET Lahore also offered three courses: Cybersecurity, Network and Cloud Computing Technologies, and Advanced Web Application Development Certificate. More than 350 students enrolled in the batch and 300 students passed out the certification.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a novel technology that allows devices to create a global communication network by exchanging data through the internet and acting on that data. Although IoT is a relatively new concept to most, the interconnective technology has been around for two decades.

From smart televisions to RFID tags within supply chains to self-driving cars, IoT has made a significant impact on the world in its infancy and will only continue to grow as time goes on.

To create awareness among students about the technology trends and the future of IoT, IoT Research and Innovation Lab (IRIL) organized a 3-week long summer training program for the students of matric, intermediate, O & A levels titled: Beginner’s Guide: How to build an IoT Application?

The learning outcomes were to develop problem-solving skills, upscale the student’s skillset, give them hands-on practice, guide them in their career path identification, and give them exposure to technology and innovation. The course outline was designed to develop the interest in IoT in the students. The students were provided with free hardware Kits to have hands-on experience on the hardware side of the IoT and also got a project assigned to develop an independent learning habit. 

At the end of the training, a closing ceremony was organized. Vice Chancellor UET, Prof. Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar, and Director KICS, Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood graced the ceremony with their presence. Vice Chancellor UET had an interacting session with the students and their parents to get feedback about the training. After that Prof. Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar, and Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood presented the certificates to the graduates.

Open-Source Software (OSS) is an established cross-disciplinary paradigm for distributed enterprise computing and e-Government. It is helping both public and private organizations to keep control on the cost of development and deployment. OSS has not only changed the way software applications are architected, deployed, and consumed but also, they are engineered to provide large distributed cross-platforms and frameworks. IEEE Computer & Communication Societies, Lahore Section, (R10) in technical co-sponsorship & in joint collaboration with Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science, UET Lahore are going to organize the 16th International Conference on Open-Source Systems & Technologies (ICOSST) 2022 on 14th-15th December 2022 to invite researchers and practitioners from across the globe to share their ideas and experiences related to the state of the art and the future of open source systems and technologies, Software & System, Cloud Computing & Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Network Security & IoT, COVID-19 Pandemic, etc. ICOSST creates a scientific venue where participants share ideas, strategies, and policies for tracking the development, research, and adaption challenges related to open-source tools and open-source development environments for their customized requirements. After two virtual conferences, this year the conference is going to be held physically at UET Lahore’s main campus.

A project titled “Automatic Meeting Minutes and Analytics Generation for Urdu” has been awarded to Dr. Farah Adeeba, Consultant at CLE by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). This project focuses on the development of an intelligent, ubiquitous meeting assistant to generate meeting minutes. It will also provide meeting-related insights to users including topics discussed in the meeting, who said what and when, meeting action items, and more. This product will allow users to use it as a meeting application to schedule and conduct meetings. This product will allow businesses and individuals to use a meeting assistant as a browser extension with existing web-based video conferencing applications like Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet, and Slack to get meeting insights. In addition, the system would be beneficial for the government to get insights into the meeting without compromising data privacy. Moreover, the processing of enormous amounts of video data will accelerate the research and development of new Urdu-based AI systems. This project will be conducted in partnership with Virtual Force Pvt. Ltd.

Though it’s been 10 years since my association with Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), UET Lahore from Research Associate to Senior Manager Research, but it seems my joining in the institute was a yesterday affair. However, there is a big difference between then and now, i.e., the time I joined here and today when I am leaving. Needless to say, I am bidding goodbye to KICS after having gained a wealth of knowledge, which I will treasure forever.

I am thankful to the company for giving me multiple opportunities and work exposure to hone my skills and gain expertise in my domain. In fact, I went beyond my IT department and interacted with people working in other areas, such as Research and Development, Marketing, Analytics, Finance, etc. Getting to work in this prestigious company has been a remarkable learning experience and I am thankful from the bottom of my heart to all my team members and other colleagues for always being on the cooperative front. Whatever I have achieved so far wouldn’t have been possible without the support of respected Director KICS, Dr. Waqar Mahmood and my team members. It feels as if being here every single day with you all makes my day fulfilling and helps me in becoming a well-rounded individual.

I want to thank all my colleagues once again for everything. I am looking forward to hear more success stories of KICS

Center for Language Engineering (CLE) is conducting research and development in computational aspects of languages, specifically of Pakistan and developing Asia. CLE aims to create opportunities for local population to access information and communicate in their local languages to enable them to use Information and Communication Technology for their socio-economic benefit.

Recently, the Center for Language Engineering has signed an MoU with the Journal of Shalamar Medical and Dental College, Linguistic Forum – A Journal of Linguistics, and Matan. Journal of Shalamar Medical and Dental College (JSHMDC) is a multi-disciplinary medical journal published bi-annually. It publishes scholarly work from medical, dental, allied health sciences, medical education, and biomedical sciences. It is devoted to publish the recent advances in research with special emphasis on clarity of presentation and precision of the data. It publishes original research articles, case reports, case series, and epidemiological studies, which are always considered for publication. The purpose of this collaboration is to index their journals on Tehqeeqat. It is a research indexing platform funded by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and developed by the Centre for Language Engineering, KICS. A total of 233 HEC-recognized journals with 37000+ articles are available at Tehqeeqat from multiple disciplines. Tehqeeqat does not only facilitate publishers in achieving the milestone of increasing the journal’s accessibility and visibility but users as well. 23000+ users are using Tehqeeqat to search their relevant information from multiple journals and can download it as well from different countries around the globe including Pakistan, the United States, India, China, Philippines, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, and Turkey.

Bioinformatics Research Lab (BRL) aims to develop various models using MedicalImaging, Augmented Realtiy (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) applications to assist in different domains such as education, health, and the retail sector.At BRL, we have developed various VR-based Lab simulators to provide blended learning opportunities which can be helpful in both online and traditional teaching methods that include a Virtual Chemistry lab, Virtual Physics lab, and Virtual Solar training simulator. We have also developed some VR-based Neurogames by monitoring children’s attention levels which can be used to enhance their cognitive abilities, an immersive VR environment with a braincomputer interface to drive a wheelchair virtually which can be helpful for the training and therapy of disabled people, AR applications that will be helpful in the retail industry and education.

Currently, we are developing some applications using HoloLens for learning and training of patients and doctors and also providing some robotics training courses to school children.

Children may feel lonely, bored, and frightened in hospitals and if pediatric patients are going through chronic disease, their learning can be affected. Epileptic patients face difficulty while learning, speaking, focusing, or remembering. To assist young epileptic pediatric patients, we are working on developing an educational walkthrough in the form of a book to understand augmented reality, epilepsy, its symptoms, and treatment procedure through a walkthrough using the HoloLens.  There would be 2 characters Rio and Tina. the book that contains the conversational story of these two characters in which they discuss epilepsy, its treatment, and other information. Patients who wear HoloLens can interact with characters that have been augmented on the pages.This application can be used as a training activity for patients to make communication with the doctor more interactive. Kids can focus on exploring the new world while undergoing unpleasant or painful procedures i.e. dressing changes etc. It can be considered as a tool of education in hospitals for pediatric patients so they can be aware of the treatment. Also, the use of AR for children in School through applications helps them understand complex concepts and anatomical structures of the body more clearly hence making visualization better.