Pakistani varsities win prizes for AI-based projects

The Sino-Pak Centre for Artificial Intelligence (SPCAI), in collaboration with Pak-Austria Fachhochschule Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (PAF-IAST), organised a “Lab2Market” event as a part of the National Artificial Intelligence Forum (NAIF).

The main purpose of the event was to invite participants from Pakistani universities to showcase their AI-based applied research ideas in the form of projects, prototypes.

In the first phase, a total of 235 projects from Pakistan were registered for this event in the first phase, where 66 universities of Pakistan participated.

After evaluation by a team of experts, 60 projects were shortlisted for the second phase ie Three-Minute Pitch (3MP). The 3MP round was conducted online on August 23, 2021, and after a rigorous evaluation of each project, 28 projects were shortlisted for showcasing at the NAIF.

Read Pakistani universities make headlines in UK's Times Higher Education ranking

The experts at the NAIF evaluated the displayed projects in detail, and the top three projects were selected for the award of prizes. The first cash prize of Rs100,000 was won by the University of Agriculture Faisalabad for the project title CNC Smart Farming Bot.

The second cash prize worth Rs75,000 was won by Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro for the project title, Design and Progression Analysis of Neuro Rehabilitation System using Machine Learning.

The third cash prize of Rs50,000 was won by the National University of Modern Language Islamabad for the project title, Talking Glove for Mute People. The participating students appreciated the efforts and arrangements made by the organisers.

They also desired that such useful events and competitions should be organised on a regular basis to promote AI culture in Pakistan as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2021.