This award supports the Second International Workshop on Research and Development in Information Technology to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan, in December 2004. The organizers are Dr. Ashfaq Khokhar, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Arif Ghafoor, Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana and Dr. S.M. Junaid Zaidi, Rector of the COMSATS (Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South) Institute of Information Technology in Islamabad, Pakistan. The purpose of the workshop is to exchange information between the US and Pakistani sides on advances in information technology and to discuss R&D needs that may be met through cooperative research projects. The key areas chosen for this workshop include: information and network security, communication and networking technology, IT-based applications, and embedded systems and pervasive computing. Several parallel sessions will be organized to make use of the expertise of expatriate and other US-based leading researchers. The workshop will include plenary sessions to introduce cutting edge research in each of the four identified areas, and two panel sessions to discuss future research trends in IT. The workshop will provide a platform for fostering research collaborations among the researchers from US and Pakistan and initiate research and development projects related to key IT research areas.
Scope: This project supports US scientists to participate in the second US-Pakistan workshop to discuss an area of great importance to both countries, and to identify potential collaborative research where the two sides can complement each other's capabilities. Drs. Khokhar and Ghafoor are experienced researchers with strong records of NSF-funded projects. They are also familiar with the science scene in Pakistan. Dr. Zaidi is also an experienced scientist who leads a major specialized institute for IT in Pakistan and who will have the backing of that country's Ministry of Science and Technology. The project will increase collaboration in science and technology with Pakistan in an area of great importance to both countries. This project is being supported by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Computer Network Systems.
