NUST announces technology park, medical devices centre

Plans to expand outreach programme to rural Sindh and G-B

National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) plans to set up a National Science and Technology Park (NSTP) and Medical Devices Development Centre (MDDC).

At MDDC, the varsity will try to make heart stents indigenously, NUST officials told the Caretaker Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training with additional portfolio of Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), Prof Yusuf Shaikh.



The varsity will put use local talent in creating innovative technologies while the MDDC in particular will prove to be a hot-spot of research in medical equipment, they said.

The NUST officials gave a detailed briefing to Shaikh on future of plans of NUST during his campus visit on Thursday. These plans include Pakistan’s first-ever NSTP and MDDC. The minister was accompanied by MoST Additional Secretary Qaiser Majeed Malik

The MoST minister while appreciating the efforts of NUST management stressed the vital need to promote quality tertiary education, including college and university level education in the country, he praised NUST for expanding its initiatives to former Fata, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan to provide opportunities for quality higher education to students from under-privileged and remote areas of Pakistan.



He emphasised the need to expand this outreach to other under-served areas like interior Sindh. NUST Rector Lt Gen (Retd) Naweed Zaman told the Minister that NUST has plans to expand the outreach programme to interior Sindh and Gilgit Baltistan (G-B).

After the briefing session, the dignitaries were led to NUST School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (SMME), NUST Medical Devices Development Centre (MDDC), a breakthrough facility in Pakistan for the indigenous production of heart stents, and NUST Technology Incubation Centre (TIC), which nurtures budding entrepreneurs in technology-related fields.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2018.