International Conference on Computer Networks and Information Technology (ICCNIT ’11) held at Bara Gali

By Sir Ikram Ud Din

Department of Computer Science is the oldest seat of Computer Science education in KPK and is an esteemed department. Keeping up with its tradition of firsts, the department arranged the first International Conference on Computer Networks and Information Technology (ICCNIT ’11) from 11-13^th July, 2011 at Bara Gali campus of University of Peshawar. It was a big endeavor, encompassing diverse Computer Science fields and equally diverse participation. The conference was primarily arranged by Department of Computer Science, University of Peshawar, in collaboration with IEEE Islamabad Chapter, IEEE Peshawar Subsection, John Moores University Liverpool, UK, and KPK UET, Peshawar.

A great opportunity for young researchers to learn from the expertise of well-known researchers The aim of ICCNIT was to provide a platform to academics and professionals to facilitate effective knowledge sharing. ICCNIT will become an annual event providing. As we all know education sector of KPK is just one of many sectors that have perished due to international & national politics in play, the state of security, etc. A conference like ICCNIT was a boost to educational activities, particularly IT research. The conference was sponsored by IEEE, Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan, Liverpool John Moores University, UK and Directorate of IT. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in general, and Directorate of IT in particular, cordially supported the event as it helped to promote the soft image of the province.

Bara Gali campus of University of Peshawar situated in the heart of Galliyat is a hotspot for national and international seminars, workshops, training courses and conferences, student trips, etc. Add to this the untiring efforts of the whole staff of Department of Computer Science to make each and every arrangement immaculate, and the result was a well-organized and enjoyable 3 days at Bara Gali with enough intellectual influx to set your mind fast on thought course, but enough magnificence of mother nature and local culture to satisfy your soul.

The conference was a thoroughly refreshing experience for the participants, both intellectually and aesthetically. It covered diverse Computer Science fields such as Computer Networks, Multimedia Contents, Databases, Natural Language Processing, Wireless Communications, Software Engineering, Web Semantics and Information Technologies. Over 120 delegates from various national and international universities/organizations became a part of it. Apart from national universities, researchers from the following international universities participated:

1. Bradford University, UK
2. Lancaster University, UK
3. East Englia (Norwich) University, UK
4. John Moores University, UK.

The conference was inaugurated by honorable Vice Chancellor of University of Peshawar, Prof. Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan on 11^th July, 2011. Prof. Dr. Amir Qayum from Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad, was the Keynote Speaker. His topic was Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs). Other speakers included:

1. Prof. Dr. Azzam Ul Asar, Chair IEEE, Subsection Peshawar/ Dean UET, Peshawar. His topic was IEEE Aims and Objectives.
2. Dr. Akhtar Hussain Khalil from UET, Mardan Campus, was invited to deliver a lecture on Academia, Intellectual Property and Commercialization.
3. Mr. Imran Malik, CEO Supernet, Karachi, presented the importance of Satellite Communication in the current era.

In total 41 research papers were presented during the course of 3 days. The environment was very interactive and every research paper was received with much interest, questioning, debate and encouragement. The conference was structured around individual sessions for main focus areas, punctuated with breaks for meals, prayers and tea. The schedule allowed everyone to unwind and relax in between sessions. All research papers are uploaded on IEEE website.

Despite being an educational conference, ICCNIT was not low on fun dose. The venue, Bara Gali, itself was a treat. The organizers went to lengths to make sure accommodation and provisions were excellent. Meal menus were meticulously planned and teas were generously served to ensure satisfied stomach and hence, alert minds. Internet facility was also available.

To add to the fun-factor, bonfires were arranged at night-time. The serenity of hills, the traditional folk music, and the cherry on top, students’ Atanr and Khattak dances, were a rich cultural experience.

As no visit to Galliyat is complete without tracking, participants were taken to Donga Gali via Ayubia on second day and a trip to Ayyubia on third day. The pristine beauty of the region took many’s breath away. The students enjoyed by singing, holding competitions, shopping, etc.

There were big and respectable names involved so expectations were high but ICCNIT exceeded expectations. Being an initial venture, it faced its due share of initial hitches but with dedication and constant hard work of the conference team headed by Dr. Saeed Mahfooz, Chairman, they were efficiently overcome. The whole of the conference team must be credited and appreciated for never failing to tackle the biggest of obstacles, putting in their very best, and eventually pulling off such a successful conference. This immaculate execution has prompted so many to request to make ICCNIT an annual event. These requests are our reward.

The conference has a dedicated website www.iccnit.com where details about the conference are available.

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In conversation with Sajid Hussain Shah

 Director IT, Department of Science, Technology & Information Technology, Government of KPK

Q:  Tell us about the IT Directorate?

A: Directorate of Information Technology Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  was established in 2004 under the Department of Science and Technology & Information Technology  with a  vision  to enhance delivery of public services to citizens in an efficient and cost effective manner, improve the quality of government service and management, enhance the collaboration of the internal departments and the interactions between the government and the public, optimize the government business process, , and finally to construct an honest, diligent, transparent and efficient government using information and communication technology.

Q: What are the key points or functions of IT directorate of KPK?

A: The objectives or functions of Directorate of IT can be divided into four major categories, which are

a.       Promotion of IT literacy, awareness and Human Resource Development in KP region

2. Establishment & Implementation of E- Government Infrastructure and initiatives
3. Promotion of Local Software Industry in KP and its related activities
4. Promotion of ICT related Research and development activities

As you know that Information and communication technology (ICT) is playing an increasingly important role in the work and personal lives of peoples. To promote IT literacy, awareness and capacity building of IT graduates the Directorate of IT has planned and initiated following initiatives which would be completed phase wise; A comprehensive IT training/literacy/capacity-building plan has been prepared. It has been observed that fresh IT graduates do not possess the market oriented professional skills and could not be absorbed in national/international IT markets. To bridge this gap professional skill development program has been started and an IT Excellence Center has been established in Deans Trade Center for Professional Skill enhancement for fresh and unemployed IT Graduates. In next 3 years 15000 young graduates will be trained on market oriented skills, To promote IT in true sense the work on establishment of IT University has been started., All the High schools/Colleges will be equipped with computer labs and computer course will be started from High Schools level, Massive IT awareness campaign would be launched shortly to update the masses of the region for the use of this technology, Courses for soft technical skills would be arranged for other than IT graduates.

 Q: What is the current progress of IT in KPK and how the KPK student is benefitting from the work of IT department?

A: We have implemented more than 20 IT projects till now. I would like to discuss few of them.

•       Computerized setup for Driving Licenses completed and functional throughout the province

•       Property taxes computerized at Peshawar and extended to other districts

•       Computerization of Land Record of one Revenue Halqa in Peshawar completed and business process being examined for change

•       Lady Reading Hospital computerization being finalized

•       Computer Software finalized for staff record, recruitments, promotion, posting transfers and infrastructure.

•       All recordkeeping  in Provincial Assembly  has been  computerized

•       IT Excellence Center has been established for preparing  IT graduates  from Universities for Entrepreneurship

•       Computerization of public service commission is being carried out.

KPK students are getting many benefits. More than 300 fresh IT graduates have been trained in IT Excellence Center and they have secured very good jobs in the market. There is another program for free IT Certifications like MCIT, OCP, CISCO for IT graduates. Also another huge training program is under way in which more than 15000 graduates would be trained on market demanded skills. We are also encouraging un employed IT graduates to be make their career as an IT entrepreneur and start their own IT business for which government would provide required funds in shape of grants and subsidies.

Q: What is your department doing for promoting IT industry in KPK?

A: As, I have stated that we are trying to equip the government departments with IT. We want to promote IT all over KPK and Pakistan. A major milestone that we’re working on is the establishment of Information Technology Park. In fact this will be the major hub of IT related activities and commerce. Government has already funded one billion rupees for this. This IT Park will be in Deans Trade Center, Peshawar. All the software houses will come under the umbrella of IT department. They’ll be provided with space and free electricity and we will support them, if they need our professional programmers or help in any other way.

Q: If I have done a project, how can I sell it in market through you people?

A. It’s quite easy these days, through our IT Park you can sell any of your small or large projects in the market. Moreover, you can visit our website.

Q: How to involve the students with IT?

  A: There are many opportunities; skillful students are the demand of the market, but the unskilled students are also trained as I discussed previously. There were many jobs and internships this year. The students are only required to be in touch with IT and other computer subjects.

Different projects are out there in the market. We train young professionals and introduce them to IT market. IT Parks are there and it has a condition that is 75 percent of the employees will be from KPK. The students studying IT and Computer Science should not lose their hope due to unemployment and other problems. The future is theirs.

Q: what are the challenges that IT industry faces, especially in Pakistan?

 A: The many challenges faced by IT and IT-enabled services industries In Pakistan includes uninterrupted power supply, reliable and fast bandwidth, however our biggest challenge is the Pakistan’s international image, issue which can be tackled by the nation as a whole, to project our positive image to the world .Actually the Geo-political instability creates a constant brain drain, which results in the lack of local and foreign investors’ confidence. As many foreign companies are reluctant to do business with Pakistan-based IT companies ,despite knowingly that we can deliver high quality services at a much lower cost. Most importantly, the incredible irresponsible attitude of the Government and the lack of dedicated technology parks, which can become the hubs of IT-related activities and commerce. It is the need of the hours to eradicate corruption from public and private sector organization, for this the computerize system is required, as it brings transparency, accountability, Integrity, and non-repudiation to any system. So, many of the officials feel reluctant to implement this finger click system ant act like a barrier at all.

 Q: what’s your opinion about the current syllabus and teaching methodology at under graduate level in Universities?

A: I’m not happy with the current syllabus and teaching methodology at all; first, there is Lack of software and hardware equipment, Computer laboratories were available with software and

Internet facilities; however, the provision is less than robust, secondly there is an Absence of research strategy , although potential exists, thirdly the  Inexperience of teaching staff ; Lecturers are mostly fresh graduates without, or with minimal, industrial experience. They know the theory well but lack the understanding of practical issue, fourthly, there is no arrangement of Staff training and short internal courses to be kept updated. Fifthly, no enough attention is paid to the Student presentations. And lastly there is no career counseling department to guide and direct students to market, the need to establish link between market and Institution is more important than ever. These all are the ground level issue and need to be addressed. How ever the HEC and IT ministry is trying to play there due role in resolving these issue by Setting up strategies Thus, the will is there and signs are good,

Web Address:

http://www.khyberpakhtunkhwa.gov.pk/department/ itec/ 

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Successful Growth in software industry can liberate us from IMF

The economic conditions of Pakistan have deteriorated at a very fast pace during the last three years. We were liberated from the controls of IMF in 2005 after a long struggle of 15 years and today we are again back to square one and there seems no hope for our financial survival. IT industry is one sector which failed to flourish here when the world was investing in it.

India focused on its software industry from the start. Their official software exports in 1985 were US $4 million that soared to US $5.3 billion in year 2000. Today they are generating US $71.6 billion from this sector.

If Pakistan has to survive as an independent state, the young minds of this nation need to be steered towards software industry. This is the only sector that requires very little investment and no raw materials. It is solely dependent upon the intellectual abilities of the young minds and can generate revenues more than our total exports to the world, helping us liberate our selves financially

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How to Select Your Final Project?

By Fatima tuz Zuhra

Lecturer, DCS UoP

Most of our students work on their final project just for fulfilling the requirements of their degree and in doing so they select such a project that is easy (according to their point of view). No doubt that this project is one of the important requirements for obtaining their degrees, but what is most important is that this project is the first opportunity for a student to practically apply the theories and concepts he/she has learnt in his/her four years study duration. They really learn during conducting this project. If this project is selected and conduced well, the student will be successful both in his/her professional life and further study e.g. MS and Ph.D.

The task of a teacher is to give right directions to students. The rest depends on the student. If he follows the directions, by working hard, success will be his. Although, this short text is not enough to set hard and fast rules for final project selection, some guidelines are provided which can help a student because final project selection is one of the crucial and hard tasks in student life.

There are two choices for final project selection: developmental project and research project. In a developmental project, the student must follow any of the software lifecycle models and must deliver a software product at the end of the project. This deliverable should be tested and debugged in all respects and must be efficient. Research projects, on the other hand, are based on research methodology. It involves a lot of literature survey i.e. a deep study of the existing knowledge. At the end of research project, the student is required to add something new to knowledge that is worth to know. Developmental projects, in my view, are recommended for those students who intend to join software industry soon. However, if a student wants higher study i.e. MS or Ph.D., then I think such a student must select a research project.

Some suggestions for the selection of final project are given below:

            i.            First of all, the student should think about his/her own interest. During his/her study, the student has studied many Computer Science subjects e.g. Data Communication and Networking, Databases, Signal Processing, Graphics, Compilers, Artificial Intelligence, E-Commerce, Operating Systems and many more. All these subjects are open for research as well as developmental projects.

          ii.            If the student is still confused, he/she can go and ask for guidance from any faculty member. If a teacher provides some options, the student should note these down and should search heavily on the Internet to select any of these options.

        iii.            There are discussion forums and e-mail groups which can be joined for getting valuable ideas and discussions on what is going on currently in any particular subject area. Joining such groups is recommended for students.

        iv.            Our university has provided students with an important facility i.e. the Digital Library. For a computer science student, it is important to access IEEE and ACM. If these resources are used well, there will be no problem in the selection of such a project, which is most wanted internationally.

          v.            The student must keep in mind, however, that for acting on the points given above, a single week or two or even a month is not enough. Although it is better to spend more time on deciding the project, it does not mean to delay the project! It means students should explore every subject they study, right from the beginning semesters (and should not defer it to the seventh or eighth semester). Students should join discussion groups and hear (at least) the discussion there much before seventh semester. They must take advantage of the digital library much before they are asked for submitting project proposals!     

Whatever choice the student takes, the main things are hard work, consistency, patience and proper planning. Good luck for your project!

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