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NATIONAL SCI-TECH SCENE
Polymer technology needs to be taught at universities
Rubber, plastic and polymer technology should be introduced in public-sector universities and institutions of higher learning in the country. Chairman, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Prof Atta-ur-Rahman, said last week while addressing the inaugural session of the one-day training programme on rubber, plastic and polymer testing technology organized by Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) in collaboration with Gibitre, Italy and Techno World Pakistan in Karachi.
Prof Rahman said this was an emerging new field for analytical chemists, engineers and technologists in Pakistan. Rubber, plastic and polymer products have wide applications and are being used in almost all fields of life ranging from consumable products to highly sophisticated machines.
Under WTO/ISO certification regime quality control and quality assurance of all products including rubber, plastic and polymer products is a pre-requisite for export/import purposes. The use of rubber, plastic and polymer products all over the world is increasing day by day.
In Pakistan, at present, there are inadequate facilities in R&D institutions/universities/industries for testing of rubber, plastic and polymer products.
Realizing the need, the PCSIR has established a rubber technology centre in its laboratories complex in Karachi.
During the seminar emphasis is going to be given to the topics including types of test required for rubber, plastic and polymer products, factors influencing test results, production cycle and control of rubber, plastic and polymer products and tensile properties.
The training component for the seminar has been designed for chemists/engineers/technologists working in the capacity of managers/lab in charges and would help them to understand and supervise quality assurance system in their establishment.
About 45 scientists, engineers, technologists from different public and private-sector organizations including Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) Taxila; Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad; Nust Rawalpindi; Peshawar University, POF Wah, Pinstech, NESC Islamabad and international polymer industries have been invited to attend the seminar.
PTCL’s R&D projects
Research and Development Fund Committee of Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) last week approved funding of five projects worth Rs3.235 million.
The funding was approved at the 20th meeting of the committee held at the offices of the Ministry of Information Technology which was presided over by Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari.
The meeting, after reviewing requests and proposals submitted by different public and private sector organizations for funding of projects in the field of research and development, approved five proposals concerning research and organization of workshops, conferences, exhibitions and symposiums.
One of the proposals was submitted by Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Development International Centre for Chemical Sciences University of Karachi for seeking Rs2.99 million to execute a project titled “Bacterial Structural Genomics by Protein structure Prediction”.
The meeting granted approval to Rs1.99 million funding as recommended by the sub-committee. The project to be completed within three years under the supervision of Dr Mohammad Kamran Azim aimed at large-scale computer-aided protein structural modelling using protein sequence information of completely sequenced genomics of disease-causing bacteria.
A database of evaluated and annotated protein models will also be generated for the use in structural, functional and comparative genomic studies. The project will greatly enhance the output of our ongoing research on structural bio-informatics of important proteins.
“The sciences related to computational molecular biology, bio-informatics and genomics are in their infancy in Pakistan, due to their proven significance in medicine and agriculture, it is our national need to initiate a comprehensive programme to establish expertise and to train people in these fields,” the proposal for the project said.
New environment body
A new Project Management Unit (PMU) would be established for the implementation of Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project.
The new unit, they said, would be headed by the project director whose office would be located at the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA)’s building at Liaquat Bagh. The unit would comprise professional staff supported by a team of consultants and officials of Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA), RDA and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa). — Sci-tech World Report
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