MUET Organizes Mega International event IMTIC12

Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) Organized mega International event International Multitopic Conference (IMTIC12) in collaboration with Allborg University, Erasmus Mundus Mobilty for Life, Higher Education Commission, and support of ICT R&D and Pakistan Science Foundation. The event includes presentation of more than 50 technical papers in parallel technical sessions, 9 keynote speakers, 5 tutorials, a Phd consortium, a Poster session competition, and technical exhibition.

In his welcome address Professor Dr MA Uqaili, Pro Vice Chancellor told that it is a matter of rejoicing and great satisfaction that International Multi-Topic Conference (IMTIC-2012) has become a perpetual feature of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro with the major support from Erasmus Mundus Mobility for Life program, and Aalborg University, Denmark and Higher Education Commission (HEC). In fact it has become an auspicious and prestigious event for researchers, professionals, and academia.  The conference took a step forward, bringing industry-academia together; the step would be an impetus for the local technological development of the country. IMTIC12 brought together a wide spectrum of international experts in the fields of Electrical, Electronics, Communications, Computers and Information Science for experts’ collaboration and knowledge transfer. Though the knowledge sharing and transfer was one of the key objectives of the conference; nevertheless, the conference also aimed to groom and encourage the energetic youngsters for their research potential. IMTIC has provided occasions for national and international researchers and practitioners to present the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of computer and software engineering, electronics, telecommunication, control, multimedia information systems, Green ICT, Energy management, Wireless networks,  simulation and modeling and so on. This year the conference received 205 submissions - confirming a trend of increasing interest in IMTIC - coming from 30+ different countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherland, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, and USA.  With so many papers to choose from, providing a conference program with a high level of technical excellence became a task that was challenging and time consuming, but ultimately a very rewarding one for the Technical Program Committee.

Chief organizer IMTIC12 and Dean FEECE Dr BS Chowdhry said that the Technical program Committee focused on two aspects while selecting the technical papers: first to provide forum for bigger number of participants from Pakistan and all over the world through presentation and discussion of the relevant areas from vast range of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) disciplines reflecting the rapidly evolving technology we are witnessing today. Second to maintain a reasonable technical standard by selection of around 51 technical papers which represents acceptance rate of approximately 25%. All the papers underwent a rigorous review process with each paper receiving at least 2 reviews. The conference program has been structured with parallel-track sessions for the presentation of papers, a PhD Consortium and a Poster Session. The program also includes 9 keynote speeches by renowned experts in the field, and 5 parallel thematic tutorials.

Mr Furqan Habib Qureshi, SEVP PTCL South and Chief guest on the occasion expressed that this International Multitopic conference is a celebration of achievement and it is a great pleasure and honor to be the Chief Guest on auspicious occasion of the IMTIC ’12. It is a matter of rejoicing and great satisfaction that  IMTIC has become a regular feature of Mehran University. It is indeed an auspicious and most significant event in the lives of the researchers, professionals, academia and industry collaboration. . It is really pride for MUET that IMTIC12 proceeding has been published by Springer Verlag Germany in its CCIS series.  I believe that the conference will help in disseminating knowledge and latest developments, research and market trends to students, professionals, practitioners and academicians. He suggested to arrange a Mega national event of all engineering and technological universities in which PTCL will provide all the needed help.

On the 3^rd day of the event in her concluding address Madam Sharmila Faruqui, Advisor to CM Govt of Sindh stated that IMTIC '12 has brought together a wide spectrum of international experts to facilitate a creative environment for the promotion of collaboration and knowledge transfer. In particular it has facilitated a dialogue between major industry players, entrepreneurs and academia to help create a roadmap for the development of tangible research environment in the country. She further said that there is a dire need of science, technology and engineering professionals within our country to find indigenous  solutions for the problems this country is facing. Information and communication technology (ICT) is widely accepted as the foremost tool with which government, researcher, industry and  business organizations can meet the demands placed on them thanks to the rapidly emerging global economy, growing population and others requirements.  It’s a matter of great contentment  that for IMTIC12 topics selected are related to  the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of Computer and Software Engineering, Electronics, Telecommunication, Control, Multimedia Information Systems, Green ICT, Energy Management, Simulation and Modeling and so on.  She congratulated all the IMTIC team, the researchers and organizers and expressed her gratitude for making it promising and inviting me to be the chief guest of such mega event in concluding ceremony. She also performed launching ceremony of IMTIC12 Proceeding Book “Emerging Trends and Applications in Information and Communication Technologies” edited by Prof Dr BS Chowdhry, Dr Faisal Karim Shaikh, DM Akbar Hussain and Dr MA Uqaili and published by Springer Verlag Germany on the occasion of conference having selected peer reviewed papers.

Vice Chancellor  Dr AQK Rajput said that this conference will raise awareness of state of the art research, locally and internationally and provide a platform for Pakistani researchers to express their ideas and research interest and effectively developing professional relations with the experts working in their areas. It also offers opportunities for learning, discussion and set challenges. We also felt that such event helps to develop the professionalism of ICT by considering quality standards, best practice, training & development and staff career development.

In addition conference focused  5 tutorials on very emerging topics:“Information and Networking Infrastructure of the Smart Grid” , by Prof. Suleyman Uludag, University of Michigan - Flint, USA. “Network Planning and Design Aspects in Future Broadband Networks”,  by Dr. M. Tahir Riaz, Aalborg University, Denmark.  “Cloud Computing and Cyber Security Challenges”,  by Dr. Jawwad Shamsi, FAST NU, Karachi.   “Massively Parallel Computation on GPUs”, Muhammad Rafi, by FAST NU, Karachi. “FPGA based Digital & Embedded System Design using VHDL”, by Ms. Farida Memon, MUET, Jamshoro.

Other important features of the event were  Poster session Competition and PhD Consortium’s.

The heart of the conference was the key note speeches from persons who are authority in their fields:  

PROFESSOR B.M. AZIZUR. RAHMAN, from City University, London who leads the research group on Photonics Modelling at City University, London, gave his key note on “Photonics, a key enabling technology”. He said that impact of electronics can be felt in all aspects of our lives and this is clearly evident from the number of papers being presented in this conference. Photonic is a comparatively young technology, and it manipulates faster photons rather than electrons as in electronics, but this technology is rapidly evolved. Prof. Rahman was the first to develop vector-field finite element method for optical waveguides and subsequently they have developed finite element based junction analysis method and the beam propagation method, which are numerically more efficient than most of the commercial packages, which are predominantly finite difference based. The Finite Element Method uses integral formulation, can consider more efficient irregular shaped elements and can also consider slanted or curved dielectric interfaces to represent practical photonic devices more accurately.
Prof Dr Andrew Kemp, Group Leader, Wireless Sensor Network Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Leeds, UK, the wireless sensor network paradigm has emerged as a highly valuable research area for good reason.
Prof Rob Reilly, President IEEE Education Society and serving as research scientist at Center for Educational Computing Initiatives, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave his keynote on “Learning, Assessment, and Becoming an Engineering Education Leader”.
Prof. Neil White, Head of School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, delivered his keynote on “Energy Harvesting and Wireless Sensor Networks”. He said that the portability of modern-day electronic systems in common use, such as mobile phones, WSN nodes puts increasing demands on the batteries used to power such systems.
Prof, Dr Asadullah Shah of Department of Computer Science, Kulliyyah of ICT, IIU Malaysia, said that social networking is unquestionably one of the most vital and influential aspects of today’s society. The users of social networking have become so involved in websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Mysapce and others that these websites have become a part of their daily routine.

Mr. Shabbir Khan from NUST, Islamabad woke up a hidden inventor inside us, he definitely created hundreds of inventors who heard his key note speech. Other Significant key note contributions were also made by Prof. Ramjee Parasad from Aalborg University, Denmark,   Prof. Gul Agha, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Dr. Dil Muhammad Akbar Hussain, from Aalborg University, Denmark. and Dr. Nasrullah Memon, University of Southern Denmark.
In his concluding remarks Prof Dr Aftab A Memon, Chairman telecommunication engineering and Local Chair IMTIC12  said that an unprecedented response and turnout was seen in Tutorials. Both, the graduate and undergraduate students showed a special interest in 5 Tutorials conducted by specialist in their fields. He further said our youth is our future, every fresh energetic tide, replaces the older weakening tide. Young enthusiastic scientists and engineers need to be polished and groomed. A poster session was devoted for the future stake holders of our country. Around 25 poster presentations were arranged inside the state-of-the-art library of MUET, Jamshoro. Young contributors from different locations of Pakistan, presented their work. Top three quality projects were assigned cash prizes.

In his vote of thanks Dr Faisal Karim Shaikh said we cannot forget the industry. An exhibition was arranged to give a platform to companies for displaying their products and offer job opportunities to youth. Thanks to PTCL,  National Instruments,  Mushko Electronics (Pvt) LTD,  Rastek Technologies Karachi, Rizvi and Co., Paktech Instruments Co.,  Ideal Distribution lines and  media partner Technology Times. In the end, I’d say that IMTIC-2012 has achieved goals which are more than our expectations. The quality research presentations and knowledge discussions will surely boost the research and development in Pakistan.