14^th International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology started on December 19^th, 2016 and after hectic academic activities for three days, successfully concluded on December 21^st, 2016. Worthy Rector CIIT, Dr. S. M. Junaid Zaidi, H.I, S.I., in the inaugural address highlighted the ever increasing influence of IT in our lives and accordingly the role and importance of an International Conference like FIT – 2016. He appreciated the efforts of technical committees, organizers, authors, and invited speakers, who travelled long distances to attend this mega event. Worthy Rector CIIT thanked all the conference sponsors for supporting this event.  

FIT – 2016 was a blend of different events, including Keynote Address, Technical Sessions, Invited Talks, Tutorials, Workshops, PhD Symposium, Best IT Innovation Award (BITA), Project Exhibition and Panel discussion. Dr. Professor Hermann Maurer from Graz University of Technology, Austria delivered the key note address. The title of his talk was “New Technologies have the Potential to Change our Lives Completely”, which was thought provoking and full of ideas.

330 technical papers were received from various countries around the world out of which 74 papers were accepted after a thorough blind peer review process. A total of 1100 reviews were completed by 370 reviewers from academia and industry of Pakistan as well as abroad with an average of 2.9 reviews per paper. The authors came from different countries as well as from all four provinces of Pakistan. A total of 35 technical sessions were organized and were chaired by renowned academicians. A total of 20 invited talks were delivered on the latest trends in the areas of computer science and electrical engineering. The talks were thought provoking and source of inspiration for the audience. Invited speakers, representing academia and IT industry across the globe were:

Three tutorial sessions were conducted during the conference on following topics:

§  “Healthcare Revolution through Wearable Electronics” by Hammad Cheema, SEECS, NUST, Pakistan.

§  “How to Complete a PhD” – successfully“ by Omer F. Rana, Cardiff University, UK and Mudasser F. Wyne, National University, San Diego, USA.

§  “Configuring Raspberry PI as IoT Device” by Syed Misbahuddin

All the tutorial discussions were interactive and healthy participation was observed. These discussions have exposed the participants with the latest trends in these domains.

A Workshop session was conducted which gave the participants a very useful hands-on experience. The title of workshop was:

§  “Monomial Transform Method for Solving Homogeneous Differential Equation with Variable Coefficients” by Abdul Majeed Siddiqui and Ayesha Sohail, Pennsylvania State University, USA

In PhD symposium the young researchers shared their on-going research. Thorough deliberations were carried out and positive suggestions including alternates were suggested by the experts regarding the problems faced and the methodologies followed by the young researchers.

In the competition for Best IT Innovation Award the proposal submissions this year were 104. The project proposal Sinoser by NUST students Hassan Iqbal, Maria Aftab, Muhammad Faizan Arshad Choudhary, Naila Iqbal, and Osama Waqar Bhatti was declared winner of 2016 BITA Award. The Chairman Pakistan Engineering Council, Engr. Javed Salim Qureshi, graced the occasion as Chief Guest. A prize of Rs. 1 million was awarded to winning team. The event was followed by a nicely choreographed cultural show and gala dinner.

On 21^st December, 2016 a panel discussion on “IoT: Challenges, Opportunities, and Prospects” was moderated by Dr. Awais Kamal, CEO, Optiwave Pvt. Ltd. The panelists included:

§  Usman Javed, Vodafone Group, UK

§  Ashiq Anjum, University of Derby, UK

§  Junaid Zubairi, The State University of New York at Fredonia, USA

§  Abu Bakar Shoaib, CISCO Systems, UAE

A major high point of FIT -2016 was the Undergraduate Project Exhibition. 42 undergraduate projects were displayed by the students from seven CIIT Campuses. The projects were evaluated by experts from abroad and Pakistan. Cash prizes were awarded to top three projects by the students of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments. In Computer Science category CIIT, Wah Campus secured first position; CIIT, Islamabad Campus secured second position while third position was jointly secured by the students of Wah and Islamabad Campus. In Electrical Engineering category, CIIT, Islamabad Campus secured first and second position while Wah Campus secured third position.

Honorable Chairman Governing Board CIIT, Federal Secretary MoST, Mr. Fazal Abbas Maken graced the Closing Ceremony of FIT – 2016. The Honorable guest appreciated the technical contents and standard of the conference. He emphasized on the importance and endeavor for continuous improvement and advised students, researchers and participants to aim high and try best to achieve them. The Chief Guest distributed shields to the participants of Panel Discussion and cash awards to the project winners.

The conference was sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Pakistan, Higher Education Commission, and National Testing Service (NTS). The conference was technically co-sponsored by IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, IEEE Islamabad Chapter, IEEE IES and IEEE CS.