Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Monday held an international conference in its endeavour to promote research culture in the country, through interactive sessions among the local and foreign academicians and scientists.

The countries that were represented at the three-day event included China, USA, UK, Germany, South Africa, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Sweden.

Participants hoped that the event will bring positive results in addressing the relevant issues and expanding the scope of research. They lauded AIOU’s contribution towards academic research and linking the same with the country’s socio-economic problems. AIOU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Shahid Siddiqui who presided over the inaugural session, briefed the participants about the university’s recent achievements in the field of research, stating it published 17 research journals and held 29 national and international conferences during the last three years. It was the university’s pride that it linked the research with the society’s related issues, he added.

The conference was arranged by the university’s department of Physics. According to the chairman of the department, Dr Syed Zafar Ilyas, around 110 research papers were to be presented during its working sessions.

It will explore multidisciplinary research, covering wide-range of relevant topics. It was also aimed at providing a forum for scientist, researchers and educators around the world to exchange state of the art research and identify needs and opportunities in the field of nano-material, modeling and simulation.

The event was the part of the research-based activities being arranged by the university on regular basis. Over the last three years, it has been focusing on promoting research culture in the country, through various means including publishing research journals and holding national and international conferences.

Dr Shahid Siddiqui also spoke about the university’s efforts strengthening the science’s related departments and enriching research labs.

They were trying to provide maximum incentives to its faculty members to undertake research-based activities and passing on the research’s findings to the end-users.

An exhibition on research-based projects, presented by the university’ students was also arranged on the occasion.

Published in Daily Times, February  13^th 2018.