ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to establish a "Computer Controlled Flexible Manufacturing Lab" at Bahria University in the capital.

An official statement issued here on Monday said the HEC would provide an amount of about Rs20 million to the university for this purpose. It has been envisaged that establishment of this lab would provide a boost to the industrial sector in several areas and make important contribution towards establishing a sustainable IT structure in the country.

The statement said it was hoped that the lab would be an indigenous facility and most probably one of its kinds in Pakistan. Its establishment would provide a solid indigenous base to support the IT-related industry in the country.

Computer-controlled system technology is relatively a new and emergent area universally. This lab would go a long way to reduce country's dependence on foreign experts in this area, besides promoting indigenization in this field.

The project would form the nucleolus for the research students who in return would support knowledge-based technology in the future and provide skilled learning to the undergraduate as well as graduate students.

It would also provide research opportunities to the potential candidates perusing doctorate degrees in the field of computer/software engineering. The establishment of this lab would provide a unique opportunity to train the engineering students in the hot market area of computer-controlled systems.

It is expected that approximately 60 to 80 undergraduate and nearly 30 graduate students would be able to perform experiments at the lab. For postgraduate students this lab will provide an infrastructure for their onward research projects leading towards their PhD.

Meanwhile, industries would be provided with the guidance for converting their units into computer-controlled ones for precision and standardization. Such facilities would be vital after the restriction and competition when GATT and similar regimes became effective.