Another City Embraces Tech Education of Pakistani Youth

While Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence and Computing (PIAIC)’s Karachi and Islamabad classes are moving forward full steam, PIAIC is initiating the program in Faisalabad, as well. “President Dr. Arif Alvi has given us a go-ahead!”, PIAIC’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Zia Ullah Khan, said beaming, “We’re very excited! We have a great team in place in Faisalabad and we’re looking forward to getting the show going.”
“Sir Zia”, as he is affectionately known to his students, is the charismatic motivator, the technical lead and the “man behind the vision” of PIAIC, that is single-handedly training over 17,000 students currently in Pakistan. It’s goal of training 100,000 students in emerging technologies like AI, Blockchain, Cloud Native and Internet of Things (IoT) with the resources and the backing of a visionary leader like the President himself, to bring it to fruition.
“This is a Dynamic movement. We’re not stopping at a 100,000 students or the four technologies we have taken up. We’re actively working on developing programs in Quantum Computing, Design Thinking and Agile. We already have a program in 5G ready to go for PIAIC.” -Zia Ullah Khan, COO, PIAIC

“The mainstay of the program, which could be termed “radical”, if not outright revolutionary, is the belief that everyone, regardless of their circumstance in life, be it their social or economic status, race, religion, or gender, especially gender that should hinder in them getting trained under this program.”, the program’s head of women’s empowerment division, Ms. Hira Khan added. “If they are willing to learn, that is the only thing they need past our basic qualification.”
The program, unlike many others, have no pre-conditions, high entrance barriers of degrees and money, and is available to all students on a strict merit basis. Pakistan, being a conservative society, often frowns upon mixing the two genders, even in instructional settings. There have been other programs developed that have limited their admissions for males only, that have limited opportunities for women, who benefit more by leveraging technology to earn from home.

The high ambitions and commitment to the program were further confirmed by the organization’s Secretary General, Mr. Kazi Rahat Ali, in a recent interview. “I must admit that we’re playing catch up with our neighbors in tech frontier, but we’re very committed to doing it.”
“Renowned professor Dr.Andrew Ng (https://www.andrewng.org), a Chinese English computer scientist, executive, investor, entrepreneur, whose ideas about how developing nations can join the 4th Industrial Revolution spoke to me.”
- Mr. Kazi Rahat Ali, Secretary General, PIAIC
“We’re taking a three-pronged approach to succeed in our mission. Our first prong will be to skip over the intermediary technologies and leapfrog into the future by adopting AI and latest technologies. Our second prong would be the use of ‘Open Source Technologies’. It will not only provide us with universal access to the software and hardware for manipulation to ensure system security, but will also enable our youth to develop low cost and easily reproducible equipment that can be modified to meet the unique needs of users in the local market. And our final prong will ensure that We Infuse Technological Competence As a Grassroot Movement. It is my firm belief that a top-down formal educational model like most formal learning via Major Educational Institutions and Universities alone won’t deliver us at the end of the day.”, Mr. Rahat Ali said.
PIAIC will conduct ist’s Faisalabad Entry test on November 3rd, 2019 at at University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF). You can get further information about the program at piaic.org and watch related videos at PIAIC’s official Youtube Channel.