14th International Conference on Frontiers of Information
Technology started on December 19th, 2016 and after hectic academic
activities for three days, successfully concluded on December 21st,
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:
·
NG Soon Xin,
University of Southampton, UK
|
·
Ahmed E Kamal, Iowa
State University, USA
|
·
Nedim Tutkun, Düzce University, Turkey
|
·
Omer F. Rana, Cardiff
University, UK
|
·
Tarek El-Bawab,
Jackson State University, USA
|
·
Bhawani S.
Chowdhry, Mehran University
of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan
|
·
M Imran Hayee, University of
Minnesota, USA
|
·
M. Ashraf Iqbal,
University of Central Punjab, Pakistan
|
·
Ricardo Vardasca, University of Porto,
Portugal
|
·
Junaid Zubairi, The
State University of New York at Fredonia, USA
|
·
Muhammad Sarfraz, Kuwait University,
Kuwait
|
·
Andrew Ware,
University of South Wales, UK
|
·
Doug Young Suh, Kyung Hee University,
South Korea
|
·
Kamran Iqbal,
University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA
|
·
Teresa Stoepler,
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Washington
D.C., USA
|
·
Abu Bakar Shoaib,
CISCO Systems, UAE
|
·
Jinjun Chen,
University of Technology, Australia
|
·
Ashiq Anjum,
University of Derby, UK
|
·
Shahbaz Khan,
UNESCO, Indonesia
|
·
Amir Hussain,
University of Stirling, UK
|
·
Shoab A. Khan, Centre for Advanced
Studies in Engineering, Pakistan
|
·
Zohaib Iqbal,
National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), Pakistan
|
·
Amir Qayyum, Capital University of
Science and Technology, Pakistan
|
·
Arshad Ali,
Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan
|
·
Imtiaz Ahmed Taj,
Capital University of Science and Technology, Pakistan
|
·
Usman Javaid,
Vodafone Group, UK
|
·
Abdul M. Suddiqui,
Pennsylvania State University, USA
|
·
Kashif Mahmood,
Next Generation Network Technology Group, Telenor
Research, Norway
|
·
Syed Ali Hassan,
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan
|
·
Rasheed Hussain,
Innopolis University (IU), Russia
|
·
Hammad Omer,
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan
|
·
Muaz A Niazi, COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan
|
·
Naveed Ikram,
Ripha International University, Pakistan
|
·
Shaukat Ali,
Senior Research Scientist, Simula Research Laboratory, Lysaker, Norway
|
·
Raziq Yaqub,
Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, AL, USA
|
·
Wajahat Mahmood
Qazi, COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
|
·
Khalid Latif, COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan
|
|
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 21st
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.
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