Researchers share breakthroughs in IT field

Islamabad

The three-day international conference on ‘Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT-2015),' organised by the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), which concluded here on Wednesday, generated tremendous interest in the IT community, providing an opportunity to researchers from around the world to share the latest breakthroughs in the field.

The hallmark of the conference was the ‘Best IT Innovation Award (BITA)’ with prize money of Rs1 million for the best innovative idea presented during the moot. The award recognizes and encourages innovative ideas for indigenous solution of problems by applying Information Technology. It offers an effective platform at the national level to identify individuals, organisations and companies whose innovations can drive us towards knowledge-based economy.

The recipients of this year’s BIT Award were: Awais Shafique, M Arslan, Hooria Annum and M. Raza Kazmi from a local university. Dr. Javaid Saleem Qureshi, chairman of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), graced the event as chief guest. He congratulated the winner of the Best IT Innovation Award and expressed the hope that it would be translated into a successful product.

The PEC chairman also congratulated Dr. S M Junaid Zaidi, rector of the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), and his team for introducing the award, which recognises and encourages creativity in IT in a befitting manner.

The theme for this year’s conference was ‘ICT for Education,’ which saw an unprecedented level of participation from international delegates and the acceptance ratio of technical papers in FIT was comparable to that of other renowned international conferences.

During the proceedings, Dr. Sajal K Das from Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA, gave a keynote address on ‘Beyond Cyber - Physical Era: What’s Next,’ highlighting emerging research challenges and opportunities. A series of ‘invited talks’ were organised as part of technical sessions, delivered by renowned scholars and researchers.