ISLAMABAD (4^th May, 2018) – CISCO Networking Academy Conference for Pakistan was held at COMSATS University, Chuk Shahzad in Islamabad on 29^th April, 2018. It was conducted for the NetAcad Community in Islamabad, Punjab and KP. From KICS UET Lahore, Rafique Sultan (Research Officer) attended it. The one-day conference was organized mainly for the academy instructors but was equally beneficial for new academies and researchers. It endowed the participants with the updates in CISCO programs and courses.

The conference provided a big opportunity to all the attendees to interact with CISCO’s top instructors in Pakistan. The participants also learnt about the new emerging technologies, programming & CCNA CyberOps courses and various other interesting topics.

The main topics shared at the conference included: 

• NetAcad Evolution & Technical Update
• Vouchers and Certifications
• Basics of Python,
• Integration Models
• NetAcad in Pakistan Challenges and Opportunities
• Network Programmability for CCNA

A delegation from University of Central Punjab’s Gujrat Campus visited Al-Khawarazmi Institute of Computer Science on 27th April 2018. A vast majority of the students along with officials and professors were included in the delegation. Director KICS Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood and Kashif Bashir (Manager HUTIC, KICS) welcomed the guests. A seminar was arranged for them where Mr. Kashif Bashir delivered a presentation about KICS and its lab along with the details of the researches being done at the institute.

The delegation was then taken to visit the labs. They took deep interest in the functioning. The students and their officials were briefed about the research projects. They were also informed about the trainings and the technical as well as IT and solar courses being carried on.

Programma Uitzending Managers (PUM) which is Dutch for ‘Manager Deployment Programme’. The country coordinator of PUM Mr. Frans visited Al-Khawarazmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS) on 19th April. The visit was specially arranged by TICK (Technology Incubation Center of KICS). Mr. Frans along with his team paid a visit on special invitation by TICK. The delegation visited all the labs at the institute and took eager interest in the functioning at all labs. Director KICS Dr. Waqar Mahmood and Program Manager TICK Frahan Riaz accompanied the delegation.

Mutual collaborative projects between PUM and KICS were also discussed at director’s office – some of them are now in pipeline and will soon be initiated. 

PUM Netherlands is a volunteer organization committed to the sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries and emerging markets. Practical expertise within the most important sectors of the economy is offered at PUM.

KICS UET Lahore and Reconciliation Department of Government of Punjab have signed an agreement for the validation of the project of AMR meters’ assessment. Punjab government has established reconciliation of energy billing cell in order to monitor and reconcile the electricity billing disputes and for this 1698 AMR meters (check meters) have been installed. These meters have been procured and installed as per WAPDA/NTDC approved specifications with the main objective of monitoring and reconciling the billing issues with concerned DISCOs of the Punjab.

For the validation of the project and its execution appropriately and fully, a third party consultancy form has been hired. ESUPAK (Engineering Services UET Pakistan) KICS have been hired as a consultancy firm. The contract signing ceremony was held on 18th April 2018 where Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood and Imran Ali Shah (Manager AIRL Lab KICS) were present from KICS UET ‘s side and Director Technical Reconciliation Muhammad Rahat Khan along with Deputy Director Reconciliation Aziz Muhammad Mazari were there from Reconciliation Department.

Both directors – Dr. Waqar Mahmood and Muhammad Rahat Khan signed the agreement.

An International RF & Microwave Symposium was held at Pearl Continental Hotel, Rawalpindi on 17^th April 2018. It was organized by National Instruments Corporation (which is an American multinational company operating all over the world) headquartered in Austin, Texas. The research topics such as 5G Communication (Massive MIMO and mm Wave), Software Define Radio, Radar and Spectrum Monitoring, RF Automated Test and RF Precision Measurement Equipment were covered over there.

All of these topics are aptly co-related with our telecom technology and research era. The international symposium was fully beneficial for the attendees and for all technical and research aspects.

The keynote speech was on the topic of “Leveraging a platform based approach for designing, testing and deploying RF systems”. Other topics included “Effective Automated Device Validation with NI PXI Software-Defined Platform”, “Software-Defined Radio – The Way for Rapid RF System Prototyping”, “Custom Solutions for Spectrum Monitoring and Signal Intelligence Systems”, “Real-Time Functional Validation of Modern RF & MW Systems: 5G and FEM to ADAS and RADAR” and “High Performance MIMI Measurements for Prototyping and Test”.

Muhammad Hafiz Tayyab Hashmi, Research Officer KICS UET Lahore, attended this event and is eager to implement these innovative research and technical ideas in HUTIC lab of KICS.