Creating a Research Culture in Pakistan -- A Local Perspective

Arshad Ali SEECS NUST Islamabad

Typical University

Student
University

Professional

Ethics ? Creativity ? Independent thinking ? Ability to apply knowledge ?

Mediocre teachers tell,

great ones inspire

Teacher
The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
Khalil Gibran

Research and Teaching

y Both

teaching and research are highly valued activities = scholar

y Teacher

This scholarship is one of the most valued assets

Model of Scholarship
4 dimensions of scholarship:
y Teaching
educating future scholars. The teaching process.

y Application applying knowledge, service, the engagement process. y Integration making connections across y Discovery
research, the investigative process.

disciplines, the synthesis process.

Attributes Associated with Research Productivity

y

Individual Attributes

Innate abilities (i.e. IQ, personality, age) Personal environmental influences

x i.e. quality and culture of graduate training
y

Institutional structure and leadership

Size of programme and faculty Amount of university revenue Facilities Number of books and journals in library Internet Access

Attributes Associated with Research Productivity

y

Departmental culture and working conditions

Workload policies Availability of funds for research Number of students on research support Availability of star faculty

Measures to Promote and Encourage Research

y

Improve incentives for research.

Reduced teaching load
x up to 6 hrs/week for faculty members involved in research

Funding
x Seed money to initiate a research project

Publication reward
x NUST Provides upto Rs 50,000 for journal publication x Travel support for attending conferences

Annual Increment
x One extra annual increment is provided for two impact factor journal publications in one year

Measures to Promote and Encourage Research

y

Encourage establishment of inter disciplinary research groups

Faculty and graduate students wishing to participate in interdisciplinary research must be supported to gain expertise in other fields Establish discipline over-lapping labs for common and collaborative development and research

Measures to Promote and Encourage Research

y

Establish priorities
Basic Research Applied Research While stressing the importance of basic research, particular importance can be attached to applied research

Measures to Promote and Encourage Research

y

Encourage and facilitate a structured mentoring program

Develop research potential of faculty by matching inexperienced researchers with experienced researchers Hold workshops on re-entry skills for faculty whose research performance needs a boost

Measures to Promote and Encourage Research

y y y y y y y y

Make it clear that research is a priority Create a positive work environment Recruit faculty who are strong in research Find ways to assign reduced teaching loads Suggest funding sources Mentor junior faculty Encourage senior faculty to co-supervise graduate students with junior faculty Encourage faculty members to publish and participate in conferences

Measures to Promote and Encourage Research

Put research/conference posters on corridors y Encourage faculty and graduate students to display posters prepared for conferences. y Promote research-based teaching. y Explore participation in international projects
y

CERN-CMS, EU, EPFL, UWE, SLAC, Caltech

y

Encourage faculty to plan sabbatical leaves / on job training at universities having high research reputation

What can faculty do

y y y y y y y y

Be international be aware of international program Avoid intellectual isolation Apply for research grants Establish research networks and collaborations Ask for seed funding to initiate a research project Teach graduate courses. Talk to upper-level undergraduates about your own research Attend conferences in your field Publish regularly. Aim for top journals if rejected learn from reviews and resubmit

University Role in National Development

Product and Services

Market Industry
Knowledge base

Create knowledge base Improve education level Universities

Produce Knowledge Human resources Development and supply

Improve productivity Productive Sectors

Market
Innovations Demand

Collaboration

Utilize Knowledge

Knowledge Base
Economic Develop Social Infrastructure

Policy

Labor Policy
Education

Policy

Policy

Policy Technology Policy

Science and

Government

Society

Politics and economy

Environment, culture, tradition, national character

Impact of just one institution----MIT

y

MIT graduates and faculty have founded over 4000 companies Employ: around 2 million people Annual Sales: over $400 billion, Collectively these companies are the 7th largest economy in the World!

y y y

Research Culture at SEECS

A Case Study

Connecting Academia and Industry

y

NUST Innopedia
Knowledge Management Initiative

As a portal for industry

Helps them search for relevant people, projects, and publications

As a portal for faculty

Helps them search for relevant research and development ideas shared by industry Helps them project their recent achievements

http://innopedia.nust.edu.pk

Industry Funded Projects

y

Ontology Guided Healthcare Analytics in partnership with Biome (US) SCADA System for Rastgar Pvt Limited Islamabad Loom Monitoring System for Gul Ahmed Textile Karachi Mil Standard 1553 databus controller for Nextek Islamabad To be deployed in PAF Aircraft Jointly built by Pakistan and China RFID based Library inventory management system for Pakistani Universities Libraries E- Health Grid for telemedicine in partnership with Army medical college, CISCO France, SKH Lahore and Shifa Hospital Islamabad

y y y

Networking & Communication

WiFi and WiMax Networks Wireless, Ad Hoc, Mesh and Sensor Networks MIMO Systems Cognitive Radios IPv6 Social Networks Analytics Health Analytics Location Based Services / Tracking Deep Packet Inspection

Cloud Computing & Distributed Systems

Internet Tomography Network Performance Monitoring Facilities: Tier 2 data center Years of research experience in HPC Longstanding collaboration with Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) Lab

Information Security
Secure Protocols Trusted Computing Web Services Security Secure group communications Secure and trusted Infrastructures. Security in open distributed systems. Secure Object Oriented Databases. Secure and trusted mobile objects. Secure network infrastructure and applications. Access control models, architecture, mechanisms and policies

Signal Processing
Speech, Image & Video Processing Video Coding / Codec Development Multi-view Video Coding Biomedical Image & Signal Processing Computer Vision

RF & Microwave Systems

Research Institute for Microwave & Millimeter Wave Studies An institute dedicated to this research area. Key RIMMS facilities: Anechoic chambers EMC/EMI Testing

Analog & Mixed Signal Systems

Switch mode transmitter architectures High speed and low power data converters Digitally assisted analog Circuits Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection and design for nanometer ICs

SIGNIFICANT R&D Output in ICT Domain

Selected Publications

28

Industrial R&D

29

WiChorus/Tellabs WiChorus/Tellabs (NASDAQ GS: TLAB, Market Cap: $1.6B)

Project 1: Design, development and optimization of DPI algorithms for encrypted traffic Project 2: Design and deployment of a network monitoring solution Project 1 is in production now Project 2 is currently underway

Cavium Networks (NASDAQ GS: CAVIUM, Market Cap: $2.0B)

Project 1: Design and development of an instrumentation framework for dynamic code analysis on Cavium processors Project 2: Design and development of OpenFlow switching on Octeon Project 1 is in production now Project 2 is underway

Marvell Technology (NASDAQ GS: MVRL, Market Cap: $8.65B)

Project 1: Design and development of an OpenFlow-enabled firmware for 48Gbps switches Project 2: Design and development of an OpenFlow-enabled firmware for 480Gbps switches Both projects are completed and in production now

NokiaNokia-Siemens Networks (NSN)

Academic Research Collaborations

University of California, Berkeley Stanford University University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan State University

University of North Carolina, Charlotte

City University of London (UK)

Coventry University (UK)

Warwick University (UK)

UBO (France)

King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) University of Malaya (Malaaysia)

King Abdullah Uni of Science & Tech. (KAUST, Saudi Arabia)

Kyunghee University (S. Korea)

University of Technology (Malaysia)

Etc

News in Stanford University Magazine

Amber Zeb and SadiaRehman were interviewed for SLAC Magazine

35

Research Culture at SEECS

y

Students are taken in during their third year of undergraduate study or 1st year of graduate study
For six months to a year they are assigned to a number of tasks by a faculty or senior student involved in some R&D project Weekly meetings
x Assigned research papers to read and critique x Weekly progress measured x Future tasks assigned

Research Culture at SEECS

y

Interdisciplinary research seminars

Various research groups hold seminars at least 3 times a month Other research groups are invited ACM and IEEE students chapters compete for excellence in arranging these seminars

Professional Workshops and Seminars

Industry and academia professionals invited from outside SEECS to enrich our knowledge base

About 2/3rd of the faculty involved in research and development

A significantly better ratio as compared to other universities in Pakistan

Summary
y y

Emphasis on scholarly activities Established guidelines for initiating and sustaining research activities Effective measures to encourage research among faculty and students Understanding of our impact on national development

SEECS Seminars
 Seminar on Waveform Processing Techniques for SDR (Software Defined Radio) on 29 December, 2011 at 1200 hours in SEECS Seminar Hall Workshop on Cloud Computing and Deploying VMware vClouds using Vsphereon 20-21 December 2011 Workshop on Optimizing Hardware Design and C/Assembly Language Programming for Embedded Systems on 16, 17 and 18th December, 2011

www.seecs.nust.edu.pk

Conclusion: Together We can make a Difference

Visiting Students and Faculty bring rich research experience and enthusiasm y Need to create an active learning environment while encouraging sharing of ideas y Create and follow ethical framework y Focus on learning outcomes y Use latest technologies in making learning more effective
y

CONCLUSION
y Coming y Keeping

together is a beginning together is a progress together is a success

y Working