A digital beginning! President Arif Alvi launches PIAIC with a click of a mouse

Dr. Arif Alvi, President of Pakistan, has launched an initiative to help promote education, research and business opportunities in Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Cloud-based computing.

According to its description, PIAIC will be an interdisciplinary hub for mass education, research, and business in artificial intelligence (AI), data science, cloud computing, edge computing, blockchain and internet of things (IoT) related fields. As AI and computing reshape our world, PIAIC intends to help make sure that Pakistan plays its part in this fourth industrial revolution. PIAIC aims is to transform education, research, and business in Pakistan.

The inspiration for PIAIC’s innovative idea came from its secretary-general, Mr. Kazi Rahat Ali, a successful international entrepreneur.

The entire technical curriculum, training, and instruction are guided by Mr. Zia Ullah Khan of Panacloud, who have been the lifeblood of training the youth of Pakistan in emerging technology for the past 20 years. He has been behind past and current successful technology training ventures like “Operation Badar”, and “Saylani Mass IT training program.”

The three partners in the public-private partnership to launch and run the initiative are Panancloud, Saylani Welfare International Trust, and Pakistan Stock Exchange

Programs being offered

Currently, PIAIC is offering three distinct programs:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Cloud Native
• Blockchain
• Internet of Things (IoT)

A brief detail of all these programs is given below:

Artificial Intelligence

This is a one year program which is designed for beginners in the field to get a taste of AI and how it can be implemented in real-world scenarios. The complete program has been divided into quarters:

• The first quarter will deal with AI foundations and basics
• The second quarter will provide the introduction to Data Science and Deep Learning
• The third quarter will focus on deploying AI solutions
• The final quarter will give a taste of AI in practice to participants

Cloud Native

This one year program will focus on providing participants information about Amazon Web Services and getting them ready for Micro-service and Multi-cloud based computing architecture. The tentative plan for its quarters is:

• The first quarter will lay foundations for cloud-native development
• The second quarter will be based on development using cloud native microservices
• The third quarter will comprise of Kubernetes in practice
• The last quarter will babe sed around AWS application development

Blockchain

This one-year Blockchain program will focus on getting participants ready for development in Blockchain, Fintech and Smart Contracts. It is also divided into the following quarters:

• The first quarter will introduce participants to Blockchain and lay the foundation for further topics
• The second quarter will feature smart contract development
• The third quarter will focus on Dapp development
• The fourth quarter will cover advanced Blockhain topics

Internet of Things (IoT)

This program is 15-18 month long comprised of 6 quarters instead of 4 for the other programs.

• The first quarter will introduce participants to Introduction to IoT Concepts and Rust Programming
• The second quarter will feature Embedded Rust and Real-time Systems Programming
• The third quarter will focus on Micro Services Development for IoT Edge and IoT Cloud using Web Assembly, Node.js, Docker and KubeEdge technologies.
• The fourth quarter will cover Voice Computing for Device Control
• The fifth quarter will cover Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Internet of Things (IoT)
• The final quarter will give a taste of Blockchain and IOTA Technologies for IoT.

Training plans for each individual course can be viewed from PIAIC’s official website.

This seems like a much-needed initiative to promote the education of these emerging and growing technologies. The curriculum also seems up to date with modern practices and with the backing of prominent figures from educational, financial and IT sector background, this initiative does have potential to be a positive indicator for ICT development in Pakistan.

Interested individuals can follow this link to register for PIAIC. Registration will open on 12th December.