UET declared resource centre for Islamic world in ICT domain
LAHORE:17 December:The 14th IEEE International Conference on Open-Source Systems and Technologies (ICOSST-2020) was held virtual due to a pandemic. Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore takes positions as a resource centre for Islamic world in ICT domain.
The ICOSST is a flagship event of Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), UET Lahore that has been happening successfully at the institute since 2006. Like every year, this year’s conference was unique in its features that inspired researchers, academics, industrial experts, public sector and private organisations not only from across the country but also from across the globe to witness quality research papers, invited talks, panel discussion and 3D modeled virtual exposition.
This year’s conference was somehow different in Covid-19 perspective, to keep face to face interaction minimal it was organised virtually using CISCO powered online conferencing tool i.e. WebEx. The option to attend from home and ease of access led to surge in participation.
The conference brought good news as on the same day KICS, UET Lahore was announced as a resource centre for Islamic World in ICT domain by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
Launching event for the report on ‘Mapping Pakistan’s resources centres happened online where the President of Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), HE Dr Bandar Hajjar, Minister of Economic Affairs, Pakistan (IsDB Governor), HE Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar and Executive Director, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Dr Shaista Sohail graced the occasion with their welcoming remarks. Representatives from various resource centres in Agriculture, Agro based industries, pharmaceuticals, information and communication technologies participated in their respective sessions.
Director KICS, Prof Dr Waqar Mahmood, presented what KICS has been doing in the area of ICT that enabled the centre to achieve excellence.
The Punjab governor Ch Muhammad Sarwar graced the opening ceremony of ICOSST-2020 with his presence as a chief guest. Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayon and Chairman Punjab Higher Education Commission Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid were invited as distinguished guests.
UET Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Syed Mansoor Sarwar welcomed the guests, invited speakers, industrial experts and public and private institutes on their participation and also appreciated Dr Waqar Mahmood and his team for putting up a great show.
Out of 176 research papers submitted from various countries including Pakistan, India, China, Italy, Lebanon, USA, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Philippine and Nigeria, the Technical Evaluation Committee accepted 35 papers qualifying the merit-based criteria.
Speakers were invited from prestigious universities of Pakistan and other countries like Italy, United States, Amsterdam, Germany and China to deliver talks in the areas of Network Security and IOT, Software and System, Cloud Computing and Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Covid-19 pandemic.
One of the prominent agenda of this year’s conference was to put forward strategies and innovative solutions to fight Covid-19 and based on this idea a panel discussion themed “Fighting Covid-19 through innovation’ was part of the ICOSST-2020.
The distinguished panel comprised Dr Adnan Jabbar, Meer Anwar, Omer Ghani, Dr Hammad and Dr Zartash Uzmi.
“Showcasing industrial and academic projects in a digital environment was a challenging task, said Dr Waqar Mahmood, Director KICS, while talking to the media.The news.
