Ignite (Formerly National ICT R&D Fund) in collaboration with CECOS University Peshawar conducted a workshop on Research Avenues: ICT Potential Applications for Pakistan as a part of Fund’s efforts to support ICT centric R&D projects. The basic purpose of the workshop was to explore the research avenues in ICT based technologies and bring awareness among the academia and professional organizations about the potentials of ICT in variety of fields including power system, cybersecurity, nanotechnology, computational biology, internet of things and fuel cells.
During the inaugural session, Dr. Azzam ul Asar, Dean Faculty of Engineering of CECOS apprised the audience about the research activities at CECOS and the purpose of this workshop to identify research areas where potentials of ICT technology can be applied for the benefit of the society. Dr. Riaz A. Khattak, Vice Chancellor CECOS appreciated the efforts of Ignite (Formerly National ICT R&D Fund) for development of research culture in academia and stressed upon the faculty and students to write proposals for possible funding from the Fund.
Mr. Ali Iqbal from Ignite (Formerly National ICT R&D Fund) in his keynote speech presented the structure of the Fund and explained the process involved in dealing with the both solicited and unsolicited ICT centric R&D proposals and various funding opportunities available with the Fund to translate these proposal into valuable product for the benefits of the masses.
The workshop mainly targeted the undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, industry players and entrepreneurs seeking opportunities for research and innovation. During the workshop, five speakers from the country and two speakers from Malaysia and USA deliberated on variety of research areas where ICT can play an effective role to develop solutions for the benefit of the society. Dr. Sahibzada Muhammad Ali highlighted the applications of ICT in increasing efficiency as well as controlling and managing the power grid. Dr. Adnan Daud khan talked about various contributions of Nanotechnology which has brought positive changes in ICT infrastructure and the industry is benefiting from nanotechnology advances with numerous applications including those in smart sensors, logic elements, computer chips, memory storage devices, optoelectronics, quantum computing, etc.
Dr. Sarmad Ullah, talked about Internet of things which describes a future where every day physical objects will be connected to the Internet and be able to identify themselves to other devices. Dr. Saim Saher presented work about the performance enhancement and testing of fuel cells which are a growing part of sustainable ICT structures. Dr Faisal F khan, Director Institute of Integrative Biosciences, CECOS talked about Computational Biology that attracts cross-disciplinary interest in the leading research and development activities regarding the processing and analyzing a large amount of genetic data in a way that is suitable for the patient care and everyday clinical routine.
Two international Speakers including Dr. Raziq Yaqub from USA and Dr. Sheroz Khan from Malaysia addressed the participants of the workshop through Skype sessions and deliberated on the topics of cyber security and smart grids.
In the concluding session, Engr. Muhammad Tanveer Javed, President CECOS University and distributed the certificates and shields to the participants.
