10:10 AM
Shahzaib Ul Hassan
It is only scientific knowledge and technological advancement that can help shape the future of a country. While economics, politics and other socio-cultural factors undoubtedly play a significant role, in essence the amelioration in science and technology paves the way for overall progress. Physics lies at the very basis of all fundamental and applied sciences and is the only branch of science that encompasses the understanding and knowledge of things ranging from within an atom to the cosmos at large. From electricity and transport to computers and bioinformatics, physics has laid the foundation of numerous technological marvels throughout the last few centuries. Around the middle of the 20th century, electronics started emerging as an independent discipline when solid-state device and then integrated circuits were discovered, thanks to the advent of modern physics. The physicists working at the CERN labs in Geneva initiated an intranet for exchanging data with each other about two decades ago, which eventually grew into the internet that the whole world banks upon these days, shrinking into a global village. To catch up with the developed world in its acquisition of modern technology, drastic measures have to be taken by developing nations such as Pakistan. CIIT Lahore aims to establish a physics department which will prove to be the torchbearer of physics education in the country. As a first step, CIIT has introduced a BS degree in Physics at its Lahore campus in fall 2007. The BS program is designed to train and equip students in a way that they can lend a substantial contribution to the latest developments in physics and its sister disciplines not only in Pakistan but anywhere in the world. The program pays special attention to the fundamental concepts of all major branches of physics with equal emphasis on their theoretical and applied aspects. The program is being launched with a vision that the CIIT Department of Physics graduates will be readily picked up by the leading local as well as global R&D organizations besides being inducted by academic institutions for teaching and for procurement of higher education. CIIT Lahore plans to introduce postgraduate degree programs such as MS and PhD in near future too.
