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Science, Technology and Innovation: Imperatives for Socio-economic Development

Science, Technology and Innovation: Imperatives for Socio-economic Development Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS UNESCO Science Laureate. Truth Stranger than Fiction !. Metamaterials ---cloaking devices Bullet proof paper: Nanocellulose Cellulose to Butanol ---running cars on old newspapers

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Science, Technology and Innovation: Imperatives for Socio-economic Development

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  1. Science, Technology and Innovation: Imperatives for Socio-economic Development Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS UNESCO Science Laureate

  2. Truth Stranger than Fiction! • Metamaterials---cloaking devices • Bullet proof paper: Nanocellulose • Cellulose to Butanol---running cars on old newspapers • Stem cells • Anti-Ageing Compounds (Resveratol) • Graphene, Molybdenite (MoS2)

  3. Truth Stranger than Fiction! • Seeds No Longer Needed • Luminescent Orchids • Cars Running on Air ! • Aeroplanes flying without internal fuel • Paralysed moving wheel chairs, and cars driven --- with thought control • Blind Seeing with the Tongue

  4. Seeing with the Tongue !! • “Wicab” in Wisconsin, in collaboration with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has developed a “lollipop” like device which allows completely blind persons to partly see with their tongue !! • Video-camera on sunglasses plus base unit transmit electrical signals to the tongue, that allows partial sight--- soon to be commercially available.

  5. Cyborg beetle: a giant flower beetle with a processor and implanting electrodes - a living machine whose flight can be wirelessly controlled

  6. Korea: A Direct Correlation Between Technical Manpower and Exports

  7. Impact of just one institution----MIT • MIT graduates and faculty have founded 4000 companies • Employ: 1.1 million people • Annual Sales: $240 billion • Collectively these companies are the 18th largest economy in the World!

  8. Overarching Approach • Simultaneous Bi-Modal Approach • Bottom-Up (Basic Needs) • Basic Health, Primary Education, Water …. • Top-Down (Knowledge Economy) • Higher Education • Building Advanced Human Capital • Enhancing and funding domestic research for adapting foreign technologies • Industrial Linkage • Enhance Competitiveness

  9. Requirements for Rapid Progress • Human capital with knowledge and skills • Technology • Innovation/Entrepreneurship Infrastructure and incentives to innovate Technology --- acting like a huge suction pump --- taking away the wealth of developing countries ---eg. Cars --- 10

  10. Pakistan---An Exciting Beginning !! • My appointment as Federal Minister of Science & Technology (2000) and Chairman Higher Education Commission (2002-2008) • 6000% Increase in Development Budget of Science Ministry and 2400% increase in Dev. Budget of Higher Education • HEC an autonomous body reporting to PM

  11. Key Challenges • Access Skilled manpower (enrolment) Facilities Information Quality Assurance Systems Faculty Relevance

  12. Challenge: How do we attract our brightest to Education/Research ? • Pakistan has 90 million below age 19 (56% of population) ! • Both a Challenge and an Opportunity • It is the brightest among them who must provide the leadership in all fields---education, S&T, Government • HOW ??

  13. Excite young mindsabout the wonders of science ! • Select and train the Brightest intop universities abroad • Attract them back--- by creating an enabling environment : • Salaries • Research Funding • Access to Literature/ Instrumentation • Critical Mass—create clusters !

  14. Attracting the Brightest ! • Dramatic Change in Salary Structures/Benefits Under new “Tenure Track” system salaries of Professors raised to over US $ 5,000 per month (equal to US$ 7,000 per month after tax concessions)---five times more than Federal Ministers in Government ! Performance based system 75% Tax waiver for University Teachers (maximum 5%)

  15. Massive Foreign scholarship programs • Nearly 11,000 awarded (mostly for Europe) --World’s largest Fulbright Scholarship program for the US • Each returning scholar given access to $ 100,000 research fund with guaranteed jobs • About US$ 1 Billion being spent on Foreign Scholarships (1500 in IT) • Indigenous PhD programs promoted

  16. Using Technology to Leap-Frog! • Pakistan Educational Research Network • Digital Library Program • PAKSAT 1 (Pakistan’s Educational Satellite) • Pakistan’s International Video-conferencing Network

  17. August 14, 2000 29 Cities

  18. Information Technology 2500 2000 2000 1500 1050 1000 580 500 29 0 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Year Spread of Internet Services in Cities & Towns of Pakistan

  19. From 40 to 1,000 Cities on Optical Fibre (2000-2005) China 2002 Afghanistan Iran India 822 cities on the Internet SDH/PDH (525/622 Mb/s) backbone being upgraded to DWDM 10 Gb/s

  20. Internet user growth June 2000:130,000 Oct 2006: >12 million Actual users more than 12 Million! Dial up Start point Today

  21. Plummeting costs…. June 2000:US$ 87,000/E1 August 2001:US$ 6,000 October 2004 : US$ 3,800 Now US$ 98 per month/2 Mb/s ! Start point Today

  22. Communications Network---the Effect of one Good Decision! • 1992-2000, little Growth(300,000 phones) • 2001,CPP regimebrought in • Network expansion of 3 million phone-lines ordered in 2002 ! Mobilink, U-fone • Explosive growth continues till today (over 96 million phones today—hottest sector of the economy)

  23. Pakistan Education & Research Network

  24. Digital Library • E-Journals: 25,000 full text journals • E-Books: access to 45,000 text books and monographs --220 international publishers • Free, nation-wide

  25. Digital Library Usage National Digital Library Program

  26. Paksat 1 Ku Band C-Band

  27. Increasing Access • 1947-2003 : 270,000 university students 2011 : 950,000 university students • No. of Public Sector Universities / Degree Awarding Institutes : Doubled from 59 in 2000 to 137 in 2011

  28. A Focus on Quality Assurance • Four year undergraduate program • Standardisation of Degree Programmes • Quality Assurance Structure • Min. Eligibility Criteria for Appointments of Faculty and M.Phil/PhD Degrees

  29. Gender-wise Enrollment in Higher Education Institutions

  30. Year-wise PhDs Produced

  31. International Research Publications

  32. Pakistan’s Share of World Articles

  33. World University Rankings • Higher Education Times, UK Rankings, November : • Several Pakistani universities ranked among the top 500 universities of the World -- In Natural Sciences: Karachi University at 223, NUST at 250 and UET (Lahore) at 281 in world!

  34. International Video-lecturing Program / Distance Learning • High quality video-conferencing equipment installed • Series of international lectures (nation-wide) by top professors from leading world universities • MIT Mirror Website for access to Open Source materials established (http://mitocw.pern.edu.pk)

  35. International Video-lecturing Program / Distance Learning • 1,300 Lectures delivered in last 2 years (live/interactive) to university students Complete synchronous courses being delivered followed by exams/credit recognition • English language courses • PhD theses public defense • Microsoft Communicator • EdX, Coursera (asynchronous) • (Chinese language, preparatory A-Level courses for new university entrants)

  36. Glowing International Reviews-- • World Bank • USAID • British Council • “Nature”--27th November 2007---- “The Paradox of Pakistan” • “Nature” --28th August 2008--- “After Musharraf” • “Nature”--- 3rd September 2009 • “Nature” --- 22nd September 2010

  37. Nature, 22nd September 2010 “Rahman's strong scientific background, enthusiasm for reform and impressive ability to secure cash made him a hit at home and abroad---- It really was an anomaly that we had a person of that stature with that kind of backing Atta-ur-Rahman was a force of nature."

  38. Royal Society (London) • In a survey entitled “A New Golden Age ?” the Royal Society (London) has come forward with examples of recent positive changes in some Islamic countries and quoted Pakistan as the best practice model to be followed by other developing countries

  39. Highest Civil Award of Austria

  40. Investment in HRD Pays Back a Million fold – with perseverance ! • 12 Students trained under our scholarship program formed an IT company in Islamabad ---won a contract of US $ 250 million (Rs 20 billion) in competition to major international companies • Innovation determines Progress----but we must create and nurture Innovation ! • Time lag between investment and impact on socio-economic development

  41. Indian Govt. Worried at Pakistan’s Progress! • Presentation to Indian Prime Minister about silent revolution in Higher Education sector of Pakistan • Prof. C.N.R. Rao (Advisor to Indian PM on Science & Technology) requested Prime Minister of India to carry out similar reforms in India • Hindustan Times, 23 July 2006

  42. Presentation to Indian PM “Pak threat to Indian science” --- Hindustan Times Neha Mehta New Delhi, July 23, 2006 “Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science.  Science is a lucrative profession in Pakistan”.

  43. Historic Meeting: Presidents of Pakistan and Indian Science Academies – Sciencebuilding bridges

  44. PROPOSAL • South Asian Countries need to cooperate together

  45. From Teaching to Tutoring! • High quality contents are becoming increasingly available on the web: • MIT Open Access (Mirror web site established in Pakistan in 2004) • edX (Recent MIT-Harvard initiative) • Coursera (Stanford, Princeton, U Penn, Michigan initiative) $ 16 million VC funds • Udaucity (Stanford Professor) • Apple iTunes x

  46. STRATEGIC APPROACH: The Higher Education Network • In this hall we have huge potential : Can we unleash it through creative strategies and programs ? • Let us stop looking only at governments to help us --- let us try and help ourselves • What is the single biggest hurdle to our development ? It is the lack of highly talented & creative faculty

  47. STRATEGIC APPROACH: The Higher Education Network • New technologies allow us to share faculty 1) Each of us should identify 10 of its best faculty members and nominate them to give 1 credit hour courses annually ---additional honorarium at suitable levels should be paid by the university ---if 50 of us make such nominations we will have an excellent resource group of 500 top quality professionals

  48. STRATEGIC APPROACH: The Higher Education Network 2) These courses should be directly related to the curricula being taught at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels • 3) The courses should be followed by an examination under the supervision of the faculty member delivering the course • 4) These courses recognised by the respective academic bodies as part of the students credit needs

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