A six-member delegation of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University Lyari (BBSUL) headed by Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Akhtar Baloch called on President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi on Saturday to discuss research and ongoing development projects in the varsity, especially the recently developed project for blinds named eWalk.
The meeting took place at the Governor House. The delegation included Dr Mazhar Ali, incharge of the BBSUL faculty of computing sciences and information technology, and Dr Shafique Awan, the supervisor of the eWalk project, and three students of the department of information technology.
The BBSUL VC briefed the president about the academic programmes and progress of the varsity, including the current development in computer science and projects in the field of artificial intelligence.
Dr Ali described explained projects like the eWalk application and digital sticks for blinds, sign language-based chatting application for deaf persons, digital and automatic wheelchair, smart home, self-safety in industries, malaria detection, as well as artificial intelligence-based projects for agriculture, aquaculture, gardens, and plants, etc. A demonstration was given on the eWalk tool that guides blind persons during walk.
The president appreciated the works of the university in general and the faculty of computer science and IT in particular. He suggested that the BBSUL connect with other universities and projects working on same tasks and provide training to faculty members in the field of artificial intelligence.
The president told the students who developed the digital stick for blinds that the digital stick may be provided to blinds and their queries regarding the stick may be addressed accordingly. The delegation requested the president to help provide artificial intelligence lab and incubation centre to the varsity so that it could deal with the modern world challenges.