Islamabad:December 29:The second three-day International Conference on Aerospace Sciences and Engineering (ICASE) 2011 organised by the Institute of Space Technology (IST), Islamabad, began on Wednesday.

More than 100 participants and delegates would share their research papers in the conference. At the inaugural ceremony, world-renowned scientist, Professor Dr. Atta ur Rehman was invited as the chief guest. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is presently the Coordinator General of Comstech, an OIC Ministerial Committee comprising Ministers of Science and Technology from 57 OIC member countries. He is also president of Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

The secretary of the conference Dr. AA Mazhar, Dean IST, Islamabad, welcomed the national and international participants. IST Vice Chancellor Imran Rahman while speaking on the occasion said mentioned one of the major endeavours of IST, in design and development of a PICO-Satellite, based on the concept of CUBESAT project of Stanford University. He said that the purpose to organize ICASE — was to bring together Academia, Research and Development Organisations, and both public and private industries to focus on the current and future developments, scientific breakthroughs and challenges in aeronautics and astronautics, including aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, control systems, space-craft engineering and communication, remote sensing and geographical information science, and materials for aerospace applications.

He was hopeful that ICASE would promote interdisciplinary understanding of aerospace systems, their underlying science and technology, and their importance and applications to government and commercial endeavours.

The VC said that the world of electronics and communication has changed in a very significant manner. The tremendous research and development efforts on underlying technologies related to wire line and wireless communication is due to the huge demand in the world telecom market. The global communication includes large swaths of sparsely populated areas, deserts and oceans where space communication plays a pivotal role in providing services in such areas. Similarly global broadcasting, mobile satellite services, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) currently stands at 4.0 trillion Dollars hence providing great opportunities to researchers and developers.

In his inaugural address the chief guest, Professor Atta ur Rehman said that truth is stranger than fiction. If one is hunting for something he turns up discovering totally different thing. He emphasized that the key to the development for any nation is to provide opportunities of education to the youth. “It’s not just the mines of gold and silver and natural resources, but we need to invest in our children and their education,” he added.

He said that the research activities have increased to the extent that research publications of Pakistani authors over took those of Indian authors. He quoted the Royal Society of London calling Pakistan a model for the other developing countries in terms of up gradation of Higher Education. He was of the view that there is no dearth of talent in the Pakistani youth it is just the provision of proper education, development of science and technology and honest and visionary leadership which is required to put Pakistan on the path to success. He also highlighted the few latest discoveries being done globally last year and this year. He told the delegates about the latest research being done in optical computers, solar satellites, thought controlled wheel chairs, luminous orchids, restoring blindness with partial eyesight using the tongue, delaying aging process etc. He also mentioned that he has send few students to compete in International Science Olympiad and three of them have returned with medals. Later, the chief guest was presented with the shield of the conference by the IST vice chancellor.The news.