The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), in collaboration with the Institute of Space Technology (IST) has held two-day digital innovation, international conference and exhibition - DICE 2010. The students, academicians and industrialists attended the workshop that was addressed by guest speakers from the US, UK, Australia, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Federal Minister for Information Technology and Education Sadder Assif Ahmed Ali who was the chief guest of the conference said the material development of society depends on the availability of scientists and properly trained engineers and technical experts.
The minister laid great emphasis on the proper utilisation of the human resource of Pakistan. He also encouraged the students to develop innovative attitude and let go of the speculative tendencies as the nation very rightly has high expectations from this generation. It is the onus of the youth to make the country competitive not only regionally but also internationally, he added.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Engr Imran Rehman, Vice Chancellor of Institute of Space Technology elaborated the main objectives of DICE - 2010 and said the conference would overcome existing lack of confidence between the industry and the academia. He further said that the academia needed to understand and realise what corporate community expects from of our graduates.
The industry must also articulate how the academics can be supported to acquire more in-depth knowledge of actual practices followed in the industry, and help them impart relevant knowledge to the students for product development, documentation, marketing and life cycle support, he said.
Dr Qamar-ul-Islam, the Chairperson of the DICE 2010 while expressing his views on this occasion said that the conference had provided competitive platform to students from all over Pakistan for display of their projects and demonstrate their technical prowess.
The event continued with enlightening deliberations by speakers of international repute. The projects related to the fields of mechanical, aerospace, electrical, electronics, communications and various other engineering disciplines were put on display by the students of universities from all over Pakistan. An Industrial exhibition was also arranged in parallel to the conference in which leading SMEs from engineering and technology sectors have participated along with a number of defence products manufacturers.