Students urged to promote research, creative thinking

LAHORE

Provincial Higher Education Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani has said that the role of higher education sector is very pivotal in ensuring composite development of the country as it develops students as future leaders to steer the country towards progress and prosperity.

In this perspective, it is important that students should take full interest in research studies as well as promoting creative thinking so that they could find out-of-the-box solutions in their fields. It will help the country to confidently walk side by side with the developed nations. It is, therefore, all the more important that the whole nation should work hard so that the dreams of Iqbal and Jinnah could be fully materialised by making Pakistan an economic tiger of the 21st century. 

According to a handout, the minister expressed the views addressing a peace seminar at University of Education, Lahore on Saturday. He said that the students should also keep themselves fully informed of latest happenings around them, adding that they should strive to improve their intellectual ken according to market needs. He maintained that different steps had been taken to improve the standards of higher education sector and pointed out that one lakh laptops would be distributed in talented students during financial year 2016-17.

Students are our best ambassadors who can bring laurels to their country with hard work, he said, adding, we must always remember that Pakistan is our pride and we should work hard to let other nations realise that Pakistanis are the best in the world. Referring the APS Peshawar carnage, the minister said the whole nation was united to eliminate terrorism to make Pakistan a peaceful and secure place for our children who will have equal access to education.

The function was also addressed by University of Education Vice Chancellor Dr. Rauf-e-Azam and anchorperson Sohail Warraich. On the occasion, students presented a stage show depicting terrorism. Later, the minister distributed shields among students.  

Robotic exhibition: Information Technology University (ITU) Vice Chancellor Dr Umar Saif has said that successful projects undertaken by students of the university would be commercialised.

He said while addressing a closing ceremony of the fifth Robotics Expo here on Saturday. The exhibition featured 14 robot prototypes successfully designed and built by ITU students to address some of the locally relevant problems of Pakistan. 

Dr Umar Saif, who is also adviser to the Punjab chief minister, said in the era of robotic revolution, ITU students were highly motivated and passionate as they were playing an immensely crucial role in bringing the revolution to Pakistan. “This time around, our country is not going to lag behind in this technological run,” he added.

Legendary cricketer Inzamam-ul-Haq was the chief guest who speaking on the occasion said he was highly impressed by the students’ efforts and added, “I foresee a bright future of Pakistan in technological innovation, and InshAllah one day, we will be ranked amongst the best in the business.” In the expo, the students showcased fascinating robots including Rekhta, an ultimate Urdu word predictor and transliterator that works in Roman and Noori Nastaleeq. The other robots included Windope, a window cleaning robot designed and built to save the lives of window cleaners who work in adverse environments to clean windows in high-rise buildings; Mawazin, a medical product that ensures safety against overdose of anesthesia medicine and administers drugs at a controlled rate; Machine-e-Meharbani, a vending machine that takes plastic bottles as credit and in return provides food to homeless people; The Eye-Writer, a robot designed for paralyzed people to help them do various tasks such as writing or controlling switch buttons by simple movements of their eyes; Taabat-ul-Miyah, a robot that can autonomously control a residential water motor based on water pressure from the main supply.

Talha Rehmani, the lead of robotics program at ITU said, “It is remarkable that our undergraduate third-semester students are demonstrating such an innovation in robotics to solve locally relevant problems at this level and this is highly unprecedented”. 

A panel of judges declared Rock Star award and three successful teams, while robotics teams’ catwalk also attracted the audience.

symposium: King Edward Medical University is organising an International Scientific Symposium on 19th and 20th of December at Patiala Block of the university.

According to a press release issued here on Saturday, the international symposium will be chaired by Prof. Dr. Faisal Masud, Vice Chancellor King Edward Medical University.

Organising Committee Chairman Prof. Dr. Irshad Husain Qureshi said that alumni from different countries like the USA, UK and Australia would present papers in the conference.