The inauguration ceremony of 13th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Open Source Systems & Technologies (ICOSST 2019) was held at University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore.
Provincial Minister Raja Yassir presided over the conference and said, “The friendship between China and Pakistan is higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the sea. China has made great advancement in technology. Now Pakistan has the opportunity to take advantage of it. With China’s support, we can move forward in information technology. Government of Punjab has launched a micro-chip architecture certification program for engineers. Under which thousands of engineers would be getting job opportunities in the international job market.”
Talking to the media, the minister said, “The bill related to the Student Union would be passed by the Assembly. The concept of Student Union has been banned because of its politicization which cannot be restored to its old state. Their restoration would be done only if it would work for the betterment of students. The proposal for creating student government is under consideration same as the Student Union in the universities. In the Student Government, the government and the students would establish a fund which would be spent on the welfare of the students. Our government wants to bring about a positive change in the lives of students.” He added that guidance center would also be established this academic year. This guidance center would provide guidance to students on career counseling, scholarships and job placement.
More than 83 national and international research papers received from around the world and experts from 40 countries reviewed these research papers to be presented in conference and finalized 6 international and 5 national research papers to be presented in conference. ICOSST 2019 was set to witness more than 50 keynote talks by high profile researchers and business leaders and more than 10 high profile global delegations attended it. 50 plus global leading companies showcased their stalls at the conference and more than 100 students’ delegations too were slated to participate at the conference.
While addressing the participants Chairman Pakistan Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Professor Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid said, “PHEC always encourages institutes and government organizations for the use of open source technologies which provides transparent use of the technologies with minimal cost. HEC is very keen to promote open source tools and has encouraged the researcher’s community to generously contribute in this cause.” He further said, “UER has established a first of its kind smart classroom in collaboration with International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO in Shenzhen, china and Weidong Cloud Education Group. I congratulate KICS and UET for setting up a revolutionary technology on its campus with the help of world leading university and industry in China.”
“The inauguration of Weidong smart classroom facility in conjunction with ICOSST is a great step which will pave the way towards modernizing the higher education sector in Pakistan.” He added.
UET Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Syed Mansoor Sarwar said, “There is a dire need for Pakistan to keep due focus on the development and use of AI technologies since they have the potential to boost our economy in several areas and enhance our exports to billion dollars. In recent times, several initiatives have been launched at the national level to take advantage of the current wave of AI.” He said, “Four national centers, National Center of Artificial Intelligence, National Center of Robotics and Automation, National Center of Cyber Security and National Center of Cloud Computing & Big Data have been established last year.”
“I feel truly honored to share that UET has won the funding under all these centers after healthy competition amongst other universities across the country.” He added.
At the end of conference Vice Chancellor UET distributed souvenirs among honorable guests.