1. Moving Pakistan into the Global Community via Networking
Arshad Ali
Nationaol University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) Pakistan
With Slide Compliments from HEC Pakistan
Arshad Ali (NUST)
16 April 2007

2. Pakistan-China silk trade route
2002
Iran
Afghanistan
India
China
China
Pakistan-China silk trade route
Afghanistan
Kashmir
Islamabad
Dr Abdus Salam
Nobel Laureate, Founder of ICTP Trieste, Italy
Lahore
Quetta
Multan
Iran
India
2nd Highest peak K-2
Oldest Indus Civilization
Karachi
Arabian Sea

3. Pakistan (little known facts)
Capital – Islamabad
Languages :
English (official)
Urdu (national)
167 million people
Universities – Over 120
Education budget being doubled since 2001
World highest telecom growth sector
Over Twelve million internet users

4. Living in a Changing World
Science and Technology are the great dividers ---the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer
World is inflicted with poverty, hunger, disease, conflicts, violence, & economic uncertainty

6. “EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY”
Solution ?
“EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY”

7. Why Science and Technology?
Science can help feed the hungry, heal the sick, contribute to poverty alleviation, protect the environment, provide dignity of labour, and unleash the creative talents of our youth by fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, resulting in a satisfying and joyful life

8. Challenges of a Changing World----- Innovation Determines Progress
New biology is decoding the blue print of life, learning to manage the placement and expression of genes and mobilizing microorganisms to do our work for the production of new products
New innovations are altering and expanding the notions of development.
the only constant is change !!

9. VISION
Socio-economic development is no longer dependent on natural resources (eg.Japan, European countries)
KNOWLEDGE has now become the main driving force of world economies and hence the basis of socio-economic development
INDUSTRIALIZATION is the key to high GDP growth (through innovation / production of high value-added goods (engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, IT, Biotechnology, etc.)

10. Overarching Approach in Pakistan
Simultaneous Bi-Modal Approach Required
Bottom-Up
Basic Health, Primary Education, Water ….
Top-Down
Higher Education
Emphasis on Science & Technology
Industrial Linkages

11. Impact of just one institution----MIT
MIT graduates and faculty have founded companies
Employ: 1.1 million people
Annual Sales: $232 billion
Collectively these companies are the 24th largest economy in the World!
Same is true for Cambridge, Stanford and others

12. Typical University—Developing Countries
Student
Professional
University
Ethics ?
Creativity ?
Independent thinking ?
Ability to apply knowledge ?

13. University Role in National Development
Collaboration
Policy
Technology Policy
Economic
Infrastructure
Education
Labor Policy
Science and
Create knowledge base
Improve education level
Improve
productivity
Product and
Services
Market
Knowledge base
Industry
Innovations
Demand
Utilize Knowledge
Productive Sectors
Produce Knowledge
Human resources
Development and supply
Universities
Knowledge Base
Develop Social
Tax and Financial
Government
Politics and economy
Environment, culture, tradition, national character
Society
With Slide Compliments from HEC Pakistan
Arshad Ali (NUST)
16 April 2007

14. Pakistan---A Promising Program
100 million below age 25 !! ( 66% population)
Higher Education / S&T budget increased several thousand percent in 4 years
A 15 year Vision/ Strategy/ Action Plan prepared and programs launched
Full support from Government in drive to develop a “K” Economy

15. HEC Plan of Action ACCESS / QUALITY / RELEVANCE
Faculty Development
Infrastructure (Free Access to Literature Free Access to Sophisticated Instruments, Technology Assisted Learning)
Focused Support in Key Areas
Quality Assurance
Linkages to the Economy

16. STRATEGY 1) BASIC SCIENCES Physics,Chemistry,Mathematics,Biology)
2) APPLIED SCIENCES
(Engineering, Agricultural sciences, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Pharmaceuticals, New Materials, Communications, Renewable Energy)
3) SOCIAL SCIENCES
4) ECONOMICS, FINANCE, MANAGEMENT
5) LINKAGES WITH INDUSTRY
6) EMPHASIS ON “K-ECONOMY”---HIGH TECH INDUSTRY!!

17. Attracting the Brightest!
Change in Salary Structures---under “Tenure Track” system salaries of Professors raised to 3 times of Federal Ministers in government!
Research Productivity Allowance----based on Cumulative Impact Factors during the preceding year
Reversing the Brain Drain----under “Foreign Faculty Hiring Program” 470 eminent expatriate/other scientists attracted to return to Pakistan

18. Attracting the Brightest!
Research Funding (upto US$ 600,000 per international linkage program)
Guaranteed Jobs to fresh Ph.Ds with higher salary structures under tenure track system
75% Reduction of Income Tax for all academics

19. Training the Brightest!
Massive Foreign scholarship programs initiated students being sent abroad annually to top universities in Europe, USA, China with guaranteed high salary jobs and research grants of US $ 100,000
Indigenous Ph.D. programs---expansion of the existing Ph.D. output to 1500 per year
Huge Local Scholarship Programs for Undergraduate level studies initiated---Rs.1 Billion to be spent!

20. Training the Brightest!
Local PhD’s being offered opportunities for postdoctoral training in top foreign institutions (hundreds being sent)
Linkages being established with top Western Institutions---50 with British Universities alone, many others
US$ 150 million Fulbright program for MS/Ph.D. level training in top universities with USA

21. Using Technology to Leap-Frog!
Pakistan Educational Research Network
Digital Library Program
PAKSAT 1 (Pakistan’s Educational Satellite)
Pakistan’s International Video-conferencing Network

22. The IT Strategy… Service to the Citizens
High capacity, reliable and accessible communications
s and Eabling enviroment
Laws and enabling environment
IT Education
And an environment that stimulates creativity and welcomes advances in the use of Information Technology

23. From 40 to 2000 Cities on Optical Fibre (2000-2007)
822 cities on the Internet
2002
Iran
Afghanistan
India
China
From 40 to 2000 Cities on Optical Fibre ( )
SDH/PDH (525/622 Mb/s) backbone being upgraded to DWDM
10 Gb/s

24. Actual users more than 12 Million!
Internet user growth
June 2000: 130, Oct 2006: >12 million
Actual users more than 12 Million!
Dial up
Start point
Today

25. Plummeting costs…. Start point Today
June 2000: US$ 87,000/E August 2001: US$ 6,000
October 2004 : US$ 3,800
Now US$ 950 per month/2 Mb/s !
Start point
Today

26. PERN Pakistan Education & Research Network
Jamshoro
Tandojam
Nawab Shah
D.I.Khan
Topi
Khairpur
Khuzdar
Abbottabad
E3 Backbone
Core Network Nodes
Total Universities
(16 OFS, 22 DXX,
17 DRS, 1 VSAT)

27. Pakistan Education and Research Network
Information highway exclusively for universities
Promote collaborative research and the sharing of domain knowledge
Platform for launching aggressive distance education programs
Platform for Digital Library service for all universities

28. Digital Library
22,000 full text journals—nation-wide, free-of- charge to universities!!! HEC Pays
Over 12 million articles downloaded in 2006 !!
Almost 300,000 end users trained nationwide
One Window Search Engine
Web of Science, Scifinder Scholar, EMBASE, IEEE, Chem/Biol.Abstracts etc.

29. Virtual University
4 Digital Satellite (PAKSAT-1) TV Channels for content delivery (License for 2 granted)
Satellite Earth Station
2 Recording Studios
Potential for providing high quality training in remote areas of Pakistan

30. International Video Lecturing Program
Using Technology to Overcome
Faculty Shortage
Cost of Travel
Nation-wide Lecture Series---Access to world-class Faculty!!
4,000 International Lectures committed

31. International Video-lecturing Program
High quality video-conferencing equipment installed in Universities
Series of international lectures (nation-wide) by Nobel Laureates and top professors from leading universities in USA, Europe, Japan etc. from November 2006
4000 Lectures arranged !!!

32. Supporting Private Sector Education
Matching grants for new institutions
Major funds for development
Land on long term lease
Sharing faculty salaries
Access to Digital Library
Access to Research Funding

33. Innovation/Entrepreneurship
Impregnating Innovation/ Entrepreneurship in University programs
STED : Access to Venture Capital
Technology Parks/Business Incubators
Islamabad Technology Estate

34. With Slide Compliments from HEC Pakistan
Establishment of New Engineering, Science & Technology Universities (UESTP)
With Slide Compliments from HEC Pakistan
Arshad Ali (NUST)
16 April 2007

35. Partner Countries France Sweden Germany Austria Italy Netherlands
China
South Korea
Japan

36. Demographic Changes in Europe —A Major Opportunity !
Diminishing younger populations of scientists & engineers in Europe
Companies looking for countries with high engineering skill base/lower manpower costs to outsource future high tech industries
A major opportunity for Europe, if they can have highly qualified science & engineering manpower trained to top standards

37. UESTP Concept
Consortium of leading European Universities with one as lead university---4,500 of our brightest students being sent for MS/PhD
Rectors, Deans, Heads of Departments and 75%-25% faculty from partner country
Examination /Quality assurance controlled by European universities
Complete equivalence
Degrees from top European Universities in Pakistan !!!
Classes commence in 2007/2008 !!

38. Benefits to Foreign Partners
Availability of pool of well trained scientific HR for expansion of partner country’s industry in Pakistan and make it globally competitive
Access to Pakistan’s large and expanding market (167 Million People).
Will help foreign countries to remain globally competitive----with access to manpower trained to their best standards

39. Impact Case Study

40. NUST Institute of Information Technology
Established in late 1999
Commenced operations by conducting short courses in rented residential premises
Now offer three UG, MS and PhD programs

41. International Research Collaboration
CERN Geneva --- Associate Institute of CMS, 21 Students and five faculty visited CERN for joint research projects
UWE UK Students undergoing joint research supervision at NIIT and UWE under EU and other funding arrangements
Caltech USA Students and Faculty visited Caltech for collaborative research under Pak-US scientific collaboration
Stanford (SLAC) USA Students and faculty visited SLAC under Pak-US scientific collaboration

42. International Research Collaboration
Comtec Japan % Research transferred at NIIT- NUST, Open Source software Jointly developed by COMTEC and NUST being taught in Five Japanese, Two US and one French Universities
EPFL Switzerland, Brain Mind Institute – 8 students carrying out research at EPFL under joint funding from EPFL and NUST

43. VRVS (Version 3) Meeting in 8 Time Zones
Caltech(US)
RAL (UK)
Japan
AMPATH(US)
CERN
Brazil
Canada
AMPATH(US)
78 Reflectors
Deployed Worldwide
Users in 96 Countries
Pakistan
Stanford

44. Local Industry Projects
SCADA System for Rastgar Pvt Limited Islamabad
Loom Monitoring System for Gul Ahmed Textile Karachi
Mil Standard 1553 databus controller for Nextek Islamabad
RFID based Library inventory management system for Pakistani Universities Libraries

45. INDUSTRY SPONSORED LABS AT NIIT
NCR established their Dataware housing and Datamining lab at NIIT
IBM Open Source Resource Center --- Hardware including E-server, Web Sphere Server, Lotus Exchange Server Donated
INTEL established a state-of-the-art computer lab at NIIT
CISCO local academy program partner for delivering CCNA/CCNP courseware

46. Results
Many fold increase in ISI (Institute of Scientific Information) abstracted publications over last 3 years----rate of increase highest in Islamic world
Young men and women have started opting to adopt careers in S&T subjects as first choice (about 30% female at NIIT)
Landscape of Universities has begun to change

47. Pakistan Research Output 2001-2006

48. Independent Review of HEC (World Bank)
“A Silent Revolution”
“Promising debut : HEC has launched its attack on the twin challenge of access and excellence”
“The HEC launched an unprecedented number of systemic reforms. These positive reforms already have benefited the universities”

49. International Applause
Editorial in Nature th January 2004:
“Rahman has convinced Musharraf ……… and a deluge of
money and new initiatives has poured out. Ministry of Science
and Technology’s annual budget has increased 60 fold
compared with 1999; researchers have an opportunity to more
than double their earnings if they publish more in peer-
reviewed journals; funds have been released for many more
Ph.Ds. to be trained at home and abroad; plans are well under
way for a free digital library for all educational institutions;
there is a new scheme to attract researchers from overseas to work in Pakistan

50. Real Wealth--
Our Children----with a population of 167 million, about a 100 million below the age of 25, Pakistan is blessed with a huge pool of talent and creativity
Challenge is to empower them with quality education and skills----and provide them opportunities to contribute to the process of socio-economic development

51. Education,
Higher Education

52. Thanks