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Technology: ‘Shining Pakistan’
Getting awarded for hard work is an exciting and exhilarating experience, especially when your endeavours are appreciated not only nationally but also internationally. Four Pakistani students — Ismail Sultan, Khalil Sultan, Aqeel Abbas and Syed Hasan Sadiq — have been fortunate enough to go through this satisfying experience.
Last month, the four were given the first Salam Pakistan Youth Award, in the physical sciences and engineering category, for their work on an In-System Programmable Industrial Controller (ISPIC). And last year their project got them the Myron Zucker Industry Applications Undergraduate Student Design Awards, which are sponsored by the prestigious US-based institution IEEE. The four thus be-came the first Pakistanis to win the coveted award in its seven-year history.
The four students have built a programmable logic controller which got them the prestigious Myron Zucker Industry Applications Undergraduate Student Design Awards
Their project may have taken them places, but the four students of the PCSIR’s Institute of Industrial Electronics Engineering (IIEE), Karachi, have not let their experience go to their heads. “Our objective was to develop an indigenous Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), but it is not that we ended up inventing something,” Khalil Sultan, who works for Suparco, told Sci-tech World.
“The development of an indigenous logic controller was started at the IIEE in 2001 by an earlier undergraduate group. However, due to some practical and technical limitations, the final product was flawed.”
Ismail Sultan, who works for Siemens Pakistan as an automation engineer, spoke at length of the importance of inculcating a culture of continuity in academic research. “The logic for selecting this particular project was that instead of wasting time and resources invested in the previous attempt, we should learn from the mistakes made and put the same to good use in an effort to develop this controller suite.
“In our academia, there is a need to understand that instead of having numerous aborted endeavours, continued efforts in a particular direction can yield better, mature and time-tested products. If you do not get results in one attempt, you can utilize the lessons drawn from it in all subsequent ones.
“We need to study how projects are handled in western academia. There, development and research continue for up to 15 or 20 years to yield a state-of-the-art product.”
Describing the scope and commercial viability of their ISPIC, he said: “It is basically a PLC which is used as an intelligent device in modern automated manufacturing systems and is responsible for controlling and monitoring industrial processes in place of humans.
“In the main, it is an industrial computer which acts as the backbone of automation. It is an integrated system containing a processor, a power supply, input modules, output modules and special purpose modules.”
As industrial units, especially in the developing countries, moved towards automation, the demand for programmable industrial controllers had gone up sharply, he pointed out. “However, the economics associated with proprietary controllers is imposing limits on their application in industrial processes. Cheaper alternatives are available from Chinese manufacturers, but even those are not feasible and cost-effective for small-scale units. Smaller units require cost-effective and yet reliable solutions for automation. Developing an indigenous PLC is therefore a cheaper and a reliable alternative.”
Potential buyers of the system included small- to medium-size industrial units, he added. “The product can also serve as an educational tool. It can be used in practical sessions in an industrial automation programme, besides computer architecture and embedded systems courses.
“What is good about our project is that we produced an industrial-level suite at an undergraduate level in a short period of time using limited resources. The product represents a low-cost solution and, once ready for commercial use, it will save the country a lot of money.”
As winners of the inaugural Salam Pakistan Award, the group received a memento, certificates and a cash award of Rs100,000. President Gen Pervez Musharraf, who gave away the award at a ceremony that was telecast live in the early hours of Aug 14, later doubled the purse.
So how does it feel to receive national recognition and an award from the president of the country? According to Hasan Sadiq, who works as a telecom engineer for ZTE, “It was indeed a memorable and overwhelming experience for all of us to have our work appreciated at the Salam Pakistan platform and to receive the award from the president on the occasion of Independence Day.”
The group’s work was supervised by Farah Bokhari and Ashab Mirza of the IIEE, who were also associated with its first PLC development initiative. Industrial support for the project was provided in the form of access to application environments by Siemens Pakistan, with Tariq Daud joining in as an external adviser.
Meanwhile, the Salam Pakistan Youth Award has three categories — namely the distinguished achievement class, the physical sciences and engineering category, and the life and biological sciences class. Adverts announcing the awards appeared in the country’s major newspapers and after careful review of the applications received, six cases were forwarded to a panel of judges headed by the chairman of Higher Education Commission, Prof Atta-ur-Rahman.
Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Pervaiz Butt, secretary to the federal science and technology department, Khwaja Zaheer, rector of the Comsats Institute of Information Technology, Dr S.M. Junaid Zaidi, and adviser to the Comstech, Dr Anwar Naseem, were also on the panel of adjudicators.
All in all, the Salam Pakistan Youth Awards, which recognize the efforts of young Pakistanis, are expected to go a long way in motivating the youth to channelize their efforts and talents towards positive contributions in scientific and technological fields.
The writer is an IT enthusiast and works for Dawn
The other winners
This year’s Salam Pakistan Youth Award for distinguished achievement was bagged by ten-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa of Faisalabad. Shehla Sami of the University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, was adjudged the winner in the life and biological sciences category.
Arfa Karim has the distinction of becoming a Microsoft Certified Professional at the ‘tender’ age of nine years and nine months. She passed the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer Dot Net (MCSD.NET) test in November, securing about 70 per cent marks.
Shehla Sami, on the other hand, was given the award for coming up with a packaging system for tomatoes which extends their shelf life from one week to nearly three months. She has already filed for a patent under the Pakistan Patent Ordinance. — RS
What the fuss is all about
A programmable logic controller, PLC, is a computer used for automation of real-world processes, such as control of machinery on assembly lines. The PLC was invented in response to the needs of the American automotive industry.
A single PLC can replace a conventional automated system featuring hundreds, even thousands, of relays and cam timers. Programmable controllers were initially adopted by the automotive industry, where software revision replaced the re-wiring of hard-wired control panels.
While a general purpose computer’s main job is data processing, a PLC is a microprocessor-based device which can be interfaced with any industrial application, such as chemical process control application, boiler application and water level control application.
The goal of the ISPIC project was to develop an embedded system for implementation of a typical PLC behaviour. This system should be a stored program control system comprising the controller, the programming unit and the programming language.
The major components of ISPIC are:
— Hardware architecture of a stand-alone computer;
— Input/Output signal modules for interfacing this computer with the process;
— Operating system for this controller. (It is this firmware which converts this computer into a PLC);
— A user language (a set of instructions) in which the user can develop his/her logic to control the process parameters;
— A compiler for assembling the user-developed program and downloading it into the ISPIC.
The design of ISPIC followed the protocol IEC 61131 — the International Standard for Programmable Controllers. (IEC stands for International Electro-technical Commission) — RS
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