Proving Pakistans mettle internationally High-level competitions on an international scale can provide a good breeding ground for encouraging and recognising the capabilities of local students.
For the first time in the history of Formula SAE - an international design competition to develop a small Formula-style race car - students from the NED University of Engineering and Technology are participating in the event.
Because of the large-scale reach of the competition and the immense international presence, this provides an avenue for promoting the commendable acumen of Pakistani universities, especially with regard to practical application of theoretical concepts.
Though the relevance of a race car may be seen far-fetched for a fiscally-constrained country, the strategic benefit of an exposure of this scale cannot be ignored.
According to Engineer Abdul Majeed Sheikh, team consultant for the project, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) - a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries - is believed to be a globally renowned authority on developments made in the automotive industry all over the world.
Not only will Pakistani students be recognised as a force to be and reckoned with, it will also set a stage for future research in the area.
Not to forget, interaction with veteran engineers from all over the world will be a great learning exercise. Last year, students from various engineering universities from Pakistan had also participated in the Shell Eco Marathon Asia - a competition organized by Shell inviting student teams from Asia to build energy-efficient vehicles. Even though not many prototypes of the designed vehicles were successful, it set ground for improving and refining the research for future projects.
Unfortunately, till the time of writing this, the response from auto industry towards these future researchers and industrialists had been deplorable. Industry players need to pay due consideration to the efforts of these young engineers, and support them as much as their resources allow.
The absence of a fine local showground encouraging students to venture beyond their books necessitates more encouragement for local teams participating in such events. It can be a strategic phase in developing the much-sought academia-industry linkages.
Did you know that in the last 50 years, just 6200 PhDs were produced by Pakistani universities, of which only a handful 14 theses were written on energy or ancillary studies? Well, now you do. And now you also have a fair idea of the lack of focus in a country battling with energy crises and the problems thereof.
Looking at Norway could, sadly, put Pakistan to shame. The country has abundant resources of oil and natural gas, was the second largest exporter of natural gas and the sixth largest exporter of oil. Yet, the government places enormous importance on research in the area of renewable energy.
The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education says that, "capacity building in the area of renewable energy is being developed in close cooperation between companies, research centres and higher education institutions."
Unfortunately, the focal point of research initiatives and on-going projects in Pakistan are not geared towards priority areas of the country, such as energy.
Unlike Norway, the issues in Pakistan are the minimalist coordination between academic institutes and the industry and a disregard for forging ties to foster greater coordination as far as research needs of various industries are concerned.
Even though Dr Javaid Laghari, Chairman HEC, optimistically claimed in an interview to a local television channel, "HEC is not an expense for government but a long-term investment for the development of the future generation," focussed research still leaves a lot to be desired. One can count on the fingers of one hand the number of universities and academic institutes in Pakistan that can boast of conducting industry-specific research through their body of qualified research students, including Masters and PhDs.
The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) sets a good precedent for other universities to follow. A local football manufacturer found a solution to measure density and diameters of footballs with the help of the Technical Incubation Centre (TIC) of the university.
Another success story is that of Siddique Leather Works, a local firm bearing the brunt of energy shortages which hampered its dyeing process frequently. Engineers from NUST came to the rescue with a Rs5 million solar water heating plant which heats up around 30,000 litters per day.
Funded mostly by the HEC, with partial funding by the company itself, the technology was later used to provide power for pumping water from a stream in a local village in FATA.
In fact, NUSTs TIC sets a fine prototype through its research wing and peripheral office inside NUST premises, which invites companies to have direct contact with students and professors relating to company-related issues.
The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) is another academic institute joining the tide of the more research-focused universities. Dr Shahid Masud, Associate Professor at the department of computer science LUMS, says that the university has undertaken several IT-based projects with the help of the National ICT R&D Fund, which is an initiative by the Ministry of Information Technology funded by telecom operators in Pakistan.
Yet, the examples are far and few. Farooq Rehmatullah, former Director, OGDCL, is highly critical of a serious lack of quality institutions for training people in the energy sector. Asked about the Alternative Energy Development Board, he said it is marred by a shortage of funds and low implementation priority.
Not much attention has been paid to agriculture either. Agricultural research intensity ratio, a standard that measures public spending on agricultural R&D, is deplorable for Pakistan. With the country spending $0.24 in agricultural research for every $100 of agricultural output in 2003, Pakistans research intensity appears lower than that of India ($0.33), Bangladesh ($0.36) and developed countries in general (over $5).
The Agriculture Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) - a FAO associated organisation involved in analysis of agricultural R&D statistics of low and middle-income countries - attributes the low level of agricultural R&D to a dearth of PhD-level trained researchers, low monetary and promotional benefits for researchers, and lack of private sector interest.
"There are a number of research institutions in the public sector in the area of textiles. However, their research output has not benefited the industrial sector...because of the lack of effective links between research organisations and industry," says Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) while describing the state of textile industry of Pakistan,
Professor S. Riazudding, Director at the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology at the University of Punjab, explained the reason, albeit partly, for this; "It should be realised that transformation of university research into commercialisable commodities is a complex issue."
He explains that establishing a link between the academia and industry is a "multistage process" and each stage has its own set of problems requiring a distinctly different solution.
Riazuddin rates efforts such as arranging meetings, symposia or seminars between academia and industry, sponsoring joint projects or providing small interest free loans as being futile. He suggests a careful, step-by-step execution of establishing workable linkages such as up scaling research procedures, assessing commercial feasibility and conducting field trials.
And a key phase he identifies for establishing this link is incentivising R&D in the country. 10-year tax holiday on raw-materials produced and developed using technologies based on local R&D and import-substitution of products developed through local R&D are a few examples through which the government can encourage this process.
There is a clear lack of initiative from all quarters. The private sector is embroiled in basic issues, such as gas shortages and liquidity problems, and is not willing to invest in funding a research associate at any local university, thanks to financial woes of their own.
Universities, on the other hand, are constrained by minimal support from the government in this regard. Nevertheless, before pointing fingers at the inadequacy of policymakers, one mustn forget that the institutions of higher learning often have out-dated curricula, and do not place much emphasis on encouraging analytical thinking amongst students.
Instructors also lack a research-based approach as obvious from the fact that PhD professors, who have a greater experience and inclination for research than non-doctorate lecturers, are few in numbers.
As for the third stakeholder - the government - the low research and development expenditure speaks for itself. With R&D expenditure less than 0.7 percent of GDP, Pakistan stands below Indias 0.8 percent, Chinas 1.5 percent and Norways 1.7 percent.
Continuation of this indifference towards research will not be a very appropriate strategy for Pakistans sustainable development.
A paper presented at the Pakistan Engineering Congress stresses quite aptly that researchers should be brought out of the "confining walls of their institutes and organisations" and encouraged to apply their skills in industrial capacities.
Working in silos is definitely not the cure. There has to be greater collaboration between the academia and the industry, as well as support from policymakers to encourage a more
elevant research environment.
The writer is a Research Analyst at Business Recorder. She can be reached at [email protected]
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