HYDERABAD: More than 45 scientists and academicians from all around Pakistan and regional countries attended a two-week workshop jointly organised by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Italy (which works under the umbrella of Unesco/IAEA) and the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology.

Titled “Asian Regional School”, the workshop was held on field programmable gate array (FPGA) ‘Design for Scientific Applications’ in MUET Jamshoro, according to a press release issued on Monday. It was started on Dec 7 and concluded on Dec 21.

MUET Vice Chancellor Prof Dr M A Uqaili said it was aimed at conducting a hands-on training activity that would provide an opportunity for engineers, physicists and computer scientists in the regional countries, especially in Pakistan, to access new technologies and gain necessary skills for designing and developing complete high-performance systems for scientific applications at low cost.

Meeting the requirement of the expertise in FPGAs (hardware/software and related tools) across the region and especially in Pakistan at academic and industrial level, MUET submitted the bid for hosting the workshop and “we were awarded this workshop on the basis of strong commitment,” facilities, and potential, the VC said.

Dr Maria Liz Crespo, one of the directors of the program, said the ICTP was established in 1964 and had been organising various technical trainings at Trieste, Italy, and in regional countries.

One of the popular technical trainings offered by the ICTP is training on FPGA for scientific instrumentations. She said: “We are very much happy about the participation of over 45 scientist and academicians from all around Pakistan and regional countries.”

Dr Adrew Cicutin, from Multi-disciplinary Laboratory ICTP Trieste Italy highlighted the importance of changing paradigm of digital electronics design. He further said that all the practical sessions of the school were based on FPGA platforms, integrated development environment (IDE) software tools and very high speed description language (VHDL) hardware description language.

The training includes introduction of modern hybrid system-on-chip devices that combine the software programmability of general purpose processors with the hardware reconfigurability of the FPGA.

Dean faculty of electrical electronics and computer engineering (FEECE) Professor Dr BS Chowdhry said “MUET Goes Global” showed that nowadays FPGAs were key players in the smart systems. However, high demand of the expertise in reconfigurable devices at national and international market, and availability of skilled human resource was a core factor. He mentioned that this intensive training would enhance capabilities of researchers and teachers from Asia who were seeking to exploit modern technologies for challenging scientific and academic purposes.

Dr Tayabuddin Memon, local organiser /director of the program gave briefing about the whole two weeks lectures and lab sessions delivered by experts from Italy, Switzerland, Argentina, the USA and Australia.

He talked about participation in this school and mentioned that more than 50 per cent participants who got training were from Pakistan and they belonged to various universities, and research and development institutes.

Prof Dr Abdul Qadeer Rajput, chairman of the Chartered Inspection and Evaluation Committee, and former guest scientist of the ICTP, Trieste, Italy, distributed certificates among participants at the concluding ceremony.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2015