PESHAWAR: The University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Peshawar, and Shandong Academy of Sciences, China, inaugurated the Pak-China Robotics and Automation Research Laboratory at the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, UET Peshawar, on Tuesday.

UET Peshawar vice-chancellor Prof Dr Iftikhar Hussain and Mr Zhang Heqing, Cultural Counsellor of the Embassy of People’s Republic of China, unveiled the plaque in the presence of Chinese diplomats and senior officials.

Speaking as chief guest, Mr Zhang Heqing said that agriculture was the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and the laboratory would efficiently use the highly-skilled researchers and scientists of robotics and automation from Shandong Academy of Sciences and UET Peshawar to generate agricultural resources that would help in transforming Pakistan into one of the technologically-advanced nations in agriculture.

He said that at present 28,000 Pakistani students were studying in Chinese universities and over 8,000 scholarships had been awarded to the talented youth.

Prof Dr Zhang Dong, director Institute of Automation, Shandong Academy of Sciences, said that besides automation in agriculture the experts of both institutions would also work in underwater robotics.

Dr Tahir Khan, professor of mechatronics engineering, said that in future the scope of work would gradually expand to artificial intelligence, renewable energy and biomedical engineering.

Prof Hussain said that the UET Peshawar and Shandong Academy of Sciences had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2017 to encourage closer academic/research links in the areas of interest for both institutions.

Through this MoU, he said, both the institutions agreed to exchange and educate academic personnel through sabbaticals and seminars to develop research programmes and projects. Later, the Chinese diplomats visited the laboratory and inspected the state-of-the-art equipment.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2019