The COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) plans to establish Technology Incubation Centers at its other campuses for entrepreneurship, development and commercialisation of their research outcome.
Establishment of Nanotechnology Center is another initiative of CIIT, which will enable researchers to harness nano-technology to create new, inexpensive materials, devices and systems with unique properties.
According to official sources, CIIT has established a ‘Centre for Policy Studies’ to provide input on policy matters through a ‘Think Tank’. CIIT campus at Islamabad and Vehari have been set up with the goal to provide quality education to the students of remote areas.
COMSATS is an international organisation which aims to reduce the ever-growing gap between the developed and developing world through useful applications of science and technology. The Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) initiated the proposal for the formation of COMSATS under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam.
COMSATS currently represents 21 developing countries across three continents including Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea (DPRK), Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Srilanka, Sudan , Syria ,Tanzania ,Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
COMSATS has selected thirteen Centers of Excellence in its member countries to develop a Network of International Science and Technology Centers for Sustainable Development in South. These centers have been selected as nodes and are being used to provide a leading role in their respective areas of specialisation.
An official said that COMSATS has prioritised its attention on various fields of science and technology. “So far, it has selected fields of Information Technology, Renewable Energy, Climate and Environmental Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Development of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME),” he added.
He also said, “These focused areas are revised from time to time according to the changing national and regional priorities and expanding areas of expertise of the COMSATS Network of Centers of Excellence. Within Pakistan, major activities of COMSATS are taking place through its subsidiaries COMSATS Internet Services (CIS) and CIIT.”
He mentioned that CIS has been set up and is operating modern communication systems in most cities throughout the country and CIIT has been established for training of professional human resource. “Success of CIIT in Pakistan inspired the establishment of a similar IT center at Damascus, Syria which was inaugurated in January 2001”, he said.
