Islamic varsity secures IDB research grant

Islamabad: The Islamic Development Bank has awarded a competitive international grant to the International Islamic University for the establishment of the Photovoltaic (PV) Energy Engineering Laboratory in continuation to IDB-funded Advanced Electronics Laboratories Project.

The project is meant to cater the needs for development of the skilled human resource in the broader area of energy research with a special emphasis on PV engineering.

The grant will also help address the reverse linkages in form of sharing the knowledge and expertise with other such focal points within the other member states of Islamic Development Bank to enable a smooth translation of knowledge in this area.

The current project, submitted to the IDB through concerned national bodies by the proponent and university’s Office of the Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) had undergone a rigorous technical vetting and review.

The Rector and the President of the university
have congratulated the
proponent and principal
investigator of Advanced Electronics Labs and
this new grant, Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed on winning yet another international project on cutting-edge cross-disciplinary research areas in engineering.

The IIU leadership has said that clinching another international honour for the university signifies a proven confidence and satisfaction of the international funding agency on the execution of previously funded Advanced Electronics Laboratories Project.

Talking about the project, Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed has said that the successful establishment of this laboratory will also augment the efforts of Government of Pakistan in the social sector, which has just started taking energy education seriously and this initiative will be amongst some pioneering steps in this direction.

In a nutshell, the PV Engineering lab’s project is targeted to the capacity building of education, research and human resource development in the PV engineering sector in the country.

Dr. Ahmed said scientifically, the project focuses on the advancement of PV technology through research in the PV phenomena in semiconductors, Solar cell focused Multi-junctions, nano-hetero structures, thin-film electronics and Metrology and characterisation of solar cells and photovoltaic processes for subsequent fabrication and utility.

He added that three distinct spheres of scientific activities namely conventional PVs, Next-generation PVs and PV efficient process metrology are envisaged to conform the variety of research problems.

According to Dr. Ahmed, the facility will further substantiate already functional Advanced Electronics Laboratories in the univer-
sity which is being
heavily used by the graduate students and researchers both from university and outside.