Daily Times

Deemah AlYahya, Secretary General, Digital Cooperation Organization visited COMSATS University Islamabad on Wednesday during her three-day visit to Pakistan. She was leading four-member delegation from DCO accompanied by senior officials of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Islamabad. AlYahya is a renowned digital economy expert and advocate of digital literacy, empowerment and training in communities traditionally marginalized by the ‘digital divide’.

Secretary General DCO visited various digital facilities in COMSATS University Islamabad and was briefed about CUI Data Center, Digitalization of Library, Video Conferencing Facility, Medical Image Processing Research Group (MIPRG) and Medical Imaging and Diagnostics Lab (MIDL). A meeting with senior officials at CUI including Prof. Dr. Shahid A Khan, Head, Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization; Prof. Dr. Sajjad A. Madani, Registrar; Prof. Dr. Shahzad A. Malik, Dean, Faculty of Engineering; Prof. Dr. Aftab Khan, Dean, Faculty of Sciences; Dr. Sohail Asghar, Professor, Department of Computer Science; Ali Tawab Baloch, Head, International Office; Dr. Majid Iqbal Khan, Head, Department of Computer Science ensued the campus visit.

Prof. Madani gave a detailed presentation about CUI. He informed that the COMSATS University Islamabad is a public sector university having seven campuses in Pakistan having five faculties, twenty two academic departments and nine state of the art research centers. He said that CUI offers more than 100 degree programs at BS, MS and PhD level to over 34,000 students, including over 500 international students. Prof. Madani also informed regarding the special initiatives of CUI on digitization, internationalization and technology innovation patronized by Prof. Dr. Muhammad T. Afzal, Rector CUI.

Secretary General DCO in her presentation highlighted aims, objectives, goals of DCO. She briefed about DCO vision of having collaboration among its seven-member counties including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Nigeria and Oman. She said that the purpose of the visit was to unlock the full potential of DCO Forum for realizing the Digital Pakistan Vision of the Government of Pakistan and finding potential areas for developing digital cooperation between COMSATS University Islamabad and DCO’s member nations. She also emphasized on women and youth empowerment in the growing digital economy.

The Secretary General showed special interest in COMSATS University’s Center for Policy Studies and Business Incubation Center and offered COMSATS University to become an observer institution of DCO. She also invited faculty members of the university to be part of the DCO’s accelerator program.

Both sides agreed on enhancing cooperation among universities of DCO member countries. Head International Office of COMSATS University was assigned as focal person for initiating collaboration with DCO through the respective Ministry.