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Islamabad:9th,
Apr, 2008
“The
Higher Education Commission (HEC) has come of age. It has
been successful in creating the infrastructure for best
quality research through harnessing technology.” This was
stated by Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Chairman HEC while
speaking as chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of seminar
on ‘Dedicated Research and Education Connection between
Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN) and Internet2
of the USA’. This dedicated network will link scientists,
research facilities, supercomputers and databases in
Pakistan and the US.
The faculty members and researchers must utilize the
opportunities being provided by Higher Education Commission
(HEC) in the field of education and research, he added.
The HEC and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) are
jointly funding a high performance research and education
network connection to support Pakistan-US science and
technology collaborations. This project will connect the
existing PERN and the developing PERN2 network to the global
research and education network infrastructure. This
connection will be implemented by a joint purchase of
capacity on an undersea cable system connecting PERN/PERN2
in Karachi to an international network connection point in
Singapore.
The Chairman asserted that only effective use of these new
tools would make the difference in our education landscape
and it is basically the faculty, which has to play the key
role in this regard.
“All these steps including high-speed research networks,
video conferencing, digital library etc are aimed at
providing faculty members and researchers state-of-the-art
facilities so that they can compete at international level”,
he said.
Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said that launching of this new
connection is part of HEC’s strategy to leap frog forward.
“We have similar parallel networks connections to connect
Pakistan to research networks in Europe, Canada and Korea”,
he said.
He informed the gathering that 60 per cent of HEC funds have
been allocated for human resource development. “Over 2,000
scholars have been sent to world’s leading universities for
MS and PhD studies and once these scholars come back they
will find an entirely changed educational environment”.
In his welcome speech, Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director
HEC termed the new project a dedicated digital motorway
between Pakistan and USA. “Today we are launching a
high-speed connection with Internet2 of USA with a complete
focus on research. This will not be used for commercial
purpose”, he said.
He said this high-speed connection will provide an excellent
quality of service. “Its applications are endless and it
will provide wonderful opportunities to our researchers in
carrying out their studies in a variety of fields such as
biotechnology, telemedicine, nanoscience, astronomy,
molecular biology, computational science etc.”, he added.
The community of research is global and transcends all
barriers and the latest venture will link Pakistan to
international level research.
He said that since its establishment, HEC has been working
to develop digital networks within universities and, through
PERN, among different universities and higher education
institutions. “We are in the process of developing PERN2
that will provide gigabit connectivity”, he said.
Dr. James Williams, Director, International Networking and
Operational Assurance and Principal Investigator for Indiana
University said that we are here to celebrate an investment
in knowledge on part of the US National Science Foundation
and the Pakistan Higher Education Commission. “For me and
for many people here, this workshop represents a major
milestone in the course of our project to enhance science
and technology collaborations between the US and Pakistan.
This project had its origins in the US-Pakistan Joint
Committee Meeting on Science and Technology between Dr.
Atta-ur-Rahman and Dr. Arden Bement of the NSF”.
“An important objective of this project was introduction of
high-speed connectivity between the two countries and today
we are announcing a very significant step toward meeting
that objective. This network connection is an important
mechanism for enhancing collaborations. But, it is only a
mechanism. It is now our responsibility to use this
mechanism as a tool to enhance Pakistan-US science and
technology activity”, he said.
“As we will see later in this Workshop, the areas of
scientific collaboration between the US and Pakistan are
many and varied. They range from studying the impact of
climate change on glaciers to cooperation in nanotechnology
to trauma and injury research to research in construction
products and cement. All of these areas will benefit from
this new network connection”, he added.
Dr. Williams said this connection would enable high-speed
transfer of medical images between countries. It will
facilitate sharing of medical and research databases and
publications. It will allow research groups separated by
half a world to communicate easily via video conference and
to use the newest of collaborative tools. It will facilitate
sharing of the best of US science and medical research with
the best of Pakistani science and medical research.
He concluded his remarks by quoting Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad
Ali Jinnah, “With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to
duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve”.
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