ISLAMABAD – Pakistan government has allocated money of Rs1.1 billion forthe period of three years to initiate project on Artificial Intelligence.
The project will be carried out under the supervision of Higher EducationCommission (HEC). The HEC shortlisted six public sector universities to setup nine labs to carry out research in the field of IA.
Earlier, in 2017 a group of engineers proposed to the HEC that anexpression of interest be sought from universities around the countryhaving a CS program with at least a W-rating, accredited by NationalComputing Education Accreditation Council (NCEAC).
According to this proposal, fifty best universities should be selectedbased on multiple KPIs e.g. quality of faculty engaged, quality ofinfrastructure and industry academia collaborations, etc.
As per the proposal, specialised streams of CS with focus on artificialintelligence can then be initialised. First two batches, each having anannual input of 200 students at all these selected institutions should befunded for the entire length of the program i.e. four years. Each studentshould get subsidy of Rs200,000 per annum. Students will be selected basedon their merit in FSc or equivalent.
Other than funding the student body, faculty salaries should also besubsidised to encourage high quality human resource to engage indevelopment of the program. It is proposed that each university receives afunding of Rs10 million in terms of subsidy for PhD qualified faculty andRs5 million for MS qualified faculty.
In terms of ICT-related infrastructure support, each university should befunded a total of Rs10 million to set up a state of the art artificialintelligence lab to support the new program. This is a total financiallayout of Rs3.25 billion for the first year. However, the PlanningCommission approved Rs1.1 billion for this project for the next threefiscal years.
Dr Yasir Ayaz from National University of Science and Technology (NUST) whohas been appointed as head of this project by the HEC while talking to TheNews said realising the importance of AI, the government has taken a goodinitiative.