ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Wednesday emphasized that adoption of technology was imperative to give next generation a better and prosperous future.
He was addressing a National Championship held here among 45 funded Final Year Projects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) undergraduates.
Ignite, a department of Ministry of Information Technology arranged the event under its National ICT Grassroots Research Initiative (NIGRI).
Under NGIRI 2017-18 Ignite had received 1623 applications from 89 ICT degree awarding institutions.
After strenuous external evaluation 350 final year projects were funded and to date over 2,200 grants have been provided to final year undergraduate student teams through universities.
These have been utilized to purchase hardware, software and other equipment required to build prototypes that address real world needs.
The programme's core objective is to build practical technical skills and foster creativity, some prototypes have evolved into industry grade products.
The Minister said, "My heart goes with young generation and his Ministry has been working to spur academic and entrepreneurial growth."
Dr. Khalid said in technology domain next 20 years would be quite important, adding that "We need to keep our pace with the world to generate more employment opportunities and end unemployment."
It is the technology which has helped in minimizing poverty, he said.
The Minister also emphasized that collaborative endeavours of all relevant organizations would take the country forward and to achieve dream of prosperity.
On the occasion, Rector, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering said appreciated the work being done by Ignite and its CEO by nurturing entrepreneurship and promoting startups in the country by imparting training in modern technologies.
He said the GIK Institute (GIKI) was one of many beneficiaries of Ignite which has been funding innovative students' projects.
Earlier, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ignite, Yusuf Hussain said the work force of future will need creativity, programming and other practical skills, and soft skills like team work.
NGIRI funding and showcasing of Final Year Projects (FYPs) builds all these capabilities, he added.
Cash prize of Rs. 400,000 was awarded to 1st position holder from Usman Institute of Technology, Karachi for their project: White Coal Machine.
Second position was won by University of Management of Technology, Lahore with a cash prize of Rs. 300,000 for project: Control and Operation of Micro-Grid whereas 3rd position with cash prize of Rs. 200,000 was won by GIKI for their project: Crypto Currency Predictor.
Supervisors of above mentioned winning FYPs received cash prizes of Rs 100,000, Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50,000 respectively.
Five final year projects were given wild entries to National Incubation Center Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta.
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