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The Honorable President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi presided over the entry test for the selection of candidates for the Islamabad chapter of Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence and Computing (PIAIC), held on August 5th at the Jinnah Sports Complex in Islamabad.
In December 2018, the PIAIClaunched its 4th industrial revolution technology specialization programs in Karachifocusing on Artificial Intelligence (AIC), Cloud Native Computing (CNC), Internet of Things (IoT), and Blockchain Computing (BCC) over 38,000 applicants. This massive response is due to the urgent desire of Pakistani youth to prepare themselves to enter the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) occurring in global technology computing field currently.
Each one of the tech fields mentioned above has a high demand for talent internationally with Silicon Valley in the United States being the hub for the most new development. Under the leadership of President Arif Alvi, the PIAIC is trying to transform Pakistan from the traditional agrarian and commodity based economy into a global tech hub.
Along with the President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi, various partners and dignitaries including, the Secretary General of PIAIC, Mr. Kazi Rahat Ali, the COO of the program, Mr. Zia Ullah Khan, and heads of partner organizations like Mr. Bashir Farooqi, Founder of Saylani Welfare International Trust and Mr. Sulaiman Mehdi, Chairman of the Pakistan Stock Exchange were also present at the opening ceremony.
The Master of Ceremony for the event was Mr. Faysal Aziz Khan, the CEO of Bol News and Strategic Advisor to the PIAIC.
PIAIC has already completed the first quarter of training in Karachi for the 12,000 students that qualified for this highly selective and competitive program. With the four cutting edge technology specializations that PIAIC focuses on, no other training program in Pakistan has neither the personnel nor the facilities to rapidly train a large group of students.
There was a time, girls were given a sewing machine to enable them to earn extra money for the family; today they can enter the tech sector and make a name for themselves while earning a living. – President Dr. Arif Alvi
The program is also specially geared towards accommodating female candidates who often find it difficult to find avenues to develop their technical skills and enter the “gig economy” which is highly amenable and accommodating for earning while taking care of their families. PIAIC program is specifically focused on developing the technical skills of the female candidates and have both the resources and opportunities to develop their career in 4IR technologies. President Dr. Arif Alvi specifically stressed the female applicants who were present for the entry test on the importance of their participation. “There was a time girls were given a sewing machines to enable them to earn extra money for the family; today they can enter the tech sector and make a name for themselves while earning a living.” President Dr. Arif Alvi said in his address to the students present for the entry exam.
Stressing on the importance of the four technologies being taught, the President said, “The world is rapidly adopting these four technologies. AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things will change the course of our history.” With the need for self-help and collaboration between students and institutions to join forces to achieve this goal, the President said that just like in a relay race when a runner who becomes exhausted while running hands his baton to another to win the race we must use these four technologies and the combined technical acumen of our nation to transform our destiny.
This highly competitive program, with classes occurring only on weekends, was designed with an eye towards the ability of both beginners orcurrent students of IT to augment their training and expertise and professionals to build new capacities to serve their current and future clients in the said technologies.
The World is rapidly adopting these four technologies. AI, Blockchain, Cloud Native Computing and Internet of Things and they will change the course of our history – President Dr. Arif Alvi
How does PIAIC program work?
PIAIC program is designed for absolute beginners in mind. The four-quarter program in each of the four disciplines that is AI, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things and Blockchain is meant to train the applicants with hand-on skills that could be put to use in the marketplace. Each applicant is required to complete the four steps outlined on PIAIC’s website to get selected for this highly sought after program in 4IR technologies.
Artificial Intelligence Program:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been designed for absolute beginners. The AI program’s curriculum is divided into AI Foundations, Introduction to Data Science and Deep Learning, Deploying AI Solutions, and AI in Practice.
Cloud Native Computing Program:
The Cloud Native Computing and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Specialist Program is divided into Cloud Native Computing Foundations, Developing Cloud Native Microservices, Kubernetes in Practice, and AWS Application Development.
Blockchain Computing Program
The BlockchainProgram is divided into Foundations of Blockchain, Smart Contract Development, Dapp Development, and Advanced Blockchain Topics.
Internet of Things Program
The Internet of Things Program is divided into Introduction to Internet of Things and Embedded Systems, Embedded Systems and Rust Programming, STM32F3 and practical implementation, Advanced Internet of Things Implementation.
PIAIC is seeking to launch similar programs in all major cities of Pakistan to change the direction of Pakistan’s economic output and make it into a global tech hub. You can get more information by visiting their website.
