LAHORE, March 28: Two Centre of High Energy Physics (CHEP) teachers having no degree or experience in the field of Information Technology (IT), have been sent to the US by the Punjab University for training that would supposedly enable them to develop a low-cost supercomputer.
Sources said the PU had released a sum of Rs3 million for the project so far, including the Rs1.5 million released in 2001. The teachers are being trained at the Albany University in the US.
According to IT experts, millions of dollars were required to develop a supercomputer. Supercomputers are the most powerful class of computers and are used to solve complex problems of economic, scientific and strategic importance. The minimum price of a supercomputer was $30 million, they claimed.
The Punjab University’s IT teachers and physicists believe that the university administration is being befooled in the name of supercomputer, as the teachers who have been sent to the US for training, have nothing to do with computers.
They said that the vice-chancellor had approved the project because he had no understanding of the development and functioning of a supercomputer. They said that the VC, who had earlier described the project as one of university’s achievements, was now avoiding its mention in progress reports for reasons best known to him.
The VC had mentioned the project in his convocation speech of 2001 but not in his convocation speeches of 2002 and 2003. He was not available when this reporter contacted him for comments.
The project was proposed by Albany University director Sajjad Aalam, according to whom a supercomputer could be developed at a very low cost. CHEP director Fazal-e-Aleem got the Rs3 million project approved, and CHEP Assistant Professor Maqsood Ahmed and lecturer Aalam Saeed were selected for it.
They maintained that the PU had not discussed the idea with any IT expert from its College of Information Technology (PUCIT) or from anywhere else.
A visit to the Albany University website showed that it had nothing to do with developing supercomputers and only offered programmes in data processing at ordinary level.
The Albani University director had also presented the idea to the Ministry of Science and Technology but failed to sell it there.
Sources said that Mr Aalam was trying to train Pakistanis in data-processing, as Americans were least interested due to its laborious nature.
A PUCIT senior teacher told Dawn that development of supercomputer at such a low cost was impossible. However, he added that the two physicists being trained in the US might learn something about enhancing the speed of computer.
When contacted, CHEP director Fazal-i-Aleem said that the project was aimed at expediting data-processing and analysis, detection of new particles and testing of theories. It would also help train MPhil and PhD students in physics, he claimed.
Mr Aleem said that the two teachers would return by December after acquiring the knowhow required to develop a low-cost supercomputer and would establish a laboratory having 50 computers connected with each other. The laboratory would have a 24-hour linkup with the Albany University, he said.
He said that the PU had got the two teachers to fill a surety bond worth Rs1 million. He also claimed that both the teachers were well-versed in IT, adding that only physicists could be trained under the project.
