Punjab to establish chip design centers in eight universities

Punjab government will be setting up micro- and nano-electronic chip design centers in eight universities of the province, and for this purpose the province has also approved funds worth PKR 41.75 million.

As reported by Mashable Pakistan, the eight universities where these centres will be established in the current fiscal year include UET Lahore, UET Taxila, ITU Lahore, and Islamia University Bahawalpur. While the MNS UET Multan, the KF UEIT Rahim Yar Khan, the University of Gujrat, and the University of Chakwal will be getting the centres sometime during the next year.

The provincial government has taken this step keeping in view the fact that local universities in Pakistan are not extensively teaching skills such as micro and nano electronics IC design because of a lack of highly trained faculty and academic resources in these domains.

Keeping this in mind, the Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Hamayun took an initiative of skills development in micro- and nano-electronics design technologies in the universities of the province.

In this regard, the minister has constituted a committee under the supervision of UET VC Prof Dr Syed Mansoor Sarwar.

Raja Yasir is of the view that the country cannot wait anymore since “leading players are already years ahead in technology development”.

“A project is approved for the provision of software and hardware facilities for Microelectronic Design and Development in eight universities to promote R&D culture and train faculty in the universities,” he said.

Few of the prominent objectives of the project include essential courses at the undergrad and graduate level at these universities. These courses will provide students with required training in the use of commercial grade IC design and verification tools.

After getting these training sessions, the graduates will be industry ready or will need minimal training before they become a productive part of the IC design industry locally as well as internationally.