SWABI, May 4: The Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology on Thursday became the first institution in the country to award a PhD degree in computer science.

Its research scholar Asifullah Khan Khalil successfully completed his doctorate on “Intelligent Perceptual Shaping of a Digital Watermark” and was awarded the degree under the Higher Education Commission’s indigenous PhD programme.

This was also the first PhD degree awarded by the institute’s Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering.

Dr Anwar Majid Mirza of the GIK Institute supervised PhD research while the thesis was evaluated by Prof Eiho of the Kyoto University Japan and Dr Chang-Tsun Li of the Warwick University UK. Dr Abdul Rauf Baig was the external examiner of the research scholar.

Asifullah had done his MSc in Physics from the Peshawar University in 1996.

He obtained another MSc in Nuclear Engineering from Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences and MS in Computer Systems Engineering from the GIK Institute in 1998 and 2003 respectively. His seven research papers were published by different journals of international repute.

Meanwhile, Hasan Fawad Junejo was awarded PhD degree on his thesis “Finite Element Modelling of Weld Based Rapid Prototyping” by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of GIK Institute.