NEPRA to collaborate with GIK Institute on faculty research

SWABI: Tauseef H. Farooqi, Chairman, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), agreed to establish collaboration with Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology to benefit from its faculty research and professional know-how.

He held a meeting with Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid, SI, Rector, GIK Institute.

Prof Dr Wasim A Khan, Pro-Rector Academics, deans, directors also attended the meeting.

Later, Farooqi addressed the students as well.

Holding talks with the rector and academia he said: “We should focus on the areas where we could work together.

We could benefit from each other’s experience in the power sector to meet the increasing demand of the people with the utilization of the latest technology and knowledge.” He suggested the faculty should work for a month in the industry every year, hoping that it would boost the academia-industry collaboration.

“It (working in the industry by academia) should be mandatory. Pakistanis are second to none but they need a track which should be provided to them,” he said.

He said that our problems are not complicated and could be easily resolved with hard work and determination. The academia of GIK Institute said the government should engage experts of universities as a working group while giving legal cover to the entire process then the interaction would be regular and durable and the whole exercise would be beneficial for the country’s industry.

Farooqi also spoke on the “NEPRA Role in Pakistan’s Power Sector.”

He visited the modern laboratory in the faculty of Electrical Engineering and Civil engineering and interacted with students.

Prof Khalid said there was a gap in communication between academia and industry, both are required to play their due role and the government should facilitate the interaction. “The things are now changing,” he said.

Microsoft Imagine Cup: GIK Institute wins the national finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup.

It is a global competition of technology that inspires generations of students from around the world to build solutions to challenging problems. This year, more than 700 teams applied from Pakistan marking the most active participation on the international level.

The GIK’s project group from the Faculty of Computer Sciences and Engineering, under the supervision of Prof Dr Zahid Halim, applied to the competition with their project.

The project has built a non-invasive portable brain computing interface that can connect around 1 billion people with disabilities to their smartphones via brain commands, potentially bringing a global influx of digital economy and remote work. The team comprised of Muhammad Hanzla Javaid, Muhammad Usman Zeb, and Abdul Rafay.

After a very rigorous procedure, the GIKI team made it to the top in Pakistan and stood as national champions of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2022 in Pakistan.

The team will represent Pakistan in the world finals and compete with 48 teams from around the globe for the grand prize of $100,000 and mentorship from Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella.

Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid, Rector, GIK Institute appreciated the efforts of all participating universities.