Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Hands-on skills of engineering and technology students need to be polished in order to make them globally competitive in the technology skills market. These remarks were made by Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar, Rector CUI while inaugurating the Rapid Prototyping Facility in the COMSATS University, Islamabad Campus.
COMSATS University Islamabad has always strived to provide state of the art facilities to students and faculty members in order help them realize impactful research projects. Resultantly, CUI has emerged among the Top Universities of the country, being globally ranked among Top 600 universities of the world.
This Rapid Prototyping Facility will be accessible to university students and faculty members as well as collaborating industries, having all major mechanical and electrical equipment required to fabricate products under one roof, said Prof. Dr. Arshad Saleem Bhatti, Dean Faculty of Sciences. Design fabrication time is also expected to be reduced due to the available machines which will be able to undertake gas/argon welding, power hack saw, universal milling, hydraulic pressing, spot welding, industrial CNC drilling, lathe machine work, industrial grinding and electronic circuit fabrication as well as 3D Printing among others.
The RPF is part of a larger vision of the Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization to establish a fully functional science park said Raza Ahmad Khan, General Manager (ORIC).
Students who use the facility will be able to refine industrial designs and enable inventors tap into the industry or reach the market in a shorter duration with a prototype product readily available at hand said Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar, Rector CUI. He also said that students must either have high value hands-on skills as well as a product proto-type ready by the time they graduate from university like other advanced countries. We as a nation also need to move from just publications to inventions and innovations in order to have a thriving economy.
COMSATS University RPF also integrates into the vision of the Prime Minister for making Pakistan a hub of innovation and continue the path of self-reliance through promotion of indigenously developed technologies and imparting hands on skills to young students and entrepreneurs.
