Saba Javed

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has urged universities to move quickly to provide new courses in entrepreneurship and exports for students to benefit the country's economy. Speaking at the two-day 19th International Conference on ‘Frontiers of Information Technology’ (FIT-2022) organised by COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), he emphasised the significance of information technology in the modern age, particularly for the economic development of Pakistan.

A 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. COMSATS Executive Director Ambassador Dr Nafees Zakaria shared his observations and praised the efforts of FIT organisers for giving researchers, scientists, and industry practitioners from all over the world a prestigious platform to present their cutting-edge research and share the most recent industry insights.

He said that COMSATS has a focus on developing domestic capability and competency in emerging sciences and technologies. Furthermore, the commission is working to ensure that a sizable portion of the population, particularly in the member states, benefits from technological developments in the fields of education, health, and energy. In his speech on "Bridging the Academia-Industry Divide," Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Knowledge Streams (Private) Ltd. Pakistan, stressed the significance of bridging the academia-industry divide and presented several initiatives that have produced innovative solutions in the country today.

He also made a point of outlining the essential procedures for running profitable businesses. Rector of CUI Prof Dr Muhammad Tabassum Afzal expressed his gratitude to the government for its assistance in fostering research and development. According to him, Pakistan lacks high-performance computer infrastructure and needs to improve training and resource management in order to fulfil the economic potential of information technology.

According to Prof Afzal, the economy's cash needs may be readily met by promoting IT-related exports and technology-based start-ups. The two-day conference is being attended by speakers from France, the Netherlands, China, Ireland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Pakistan. The technical programme of the conference will consist of a series of invited speeches, and a PhD symposium will give Ph.D. scholars the chance to present their ongoing research and get input from industry professionals.

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, among others.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk