Zubair Qureshi
The Higher Education Commission on Monday approved a hefty grant of Rs63.2 million for the research initiatives proposed by the academics of Iqra University in the fields of engineering sciences, business studies, media studies, and social sciences under the National Research Program for Universities.
The research projects will be completed in the time frame allocated — 18 to 36 months — under the supervision of principal investigators from Iqra University. It is anticipated that the findings of these research projects will help the farming and agricultural industries, clinical and health sciences, food import and environmental sciences, and the advertising industry in terms of public service campaigns.
The NRPU awards were given to proposals that were collaborative in nature, with teams consisting of junior and senior academic staff, male and female researchers, and appropriate industrial collaborators, and were selected through a merit-based, independent, and transparent evaluation and selection process based on international standards.
The approved projects include smart farming: An approach towards the development of efficient and effective urban cultivation Test Bed using Smart Technologies, proposed by Dr. Mansoor Ibrahim Dr. Syed Hasan Adil, and Prof. Dr. Kamran Raza (Co-principal investigators) to aid government initiatives to increase and improve agriculture growth, ensure food security, increase productivity, and to cater to a wide variety of nutrition and organic products at low cost besides generating business opportunities using Urban farming techniques (Hydroponics) coupled with Smart technologies, ii. Indigenous development of Artificial Intelligence-based MYO Electrode Body Sensor Network System to Detect Neurological Disorders causing Disability with COVID-19 affectees in Pakistan proposed by Dr. Syed Muhammad Asim Ali Rizvi (principal investigator), Dr. Mansoor Ibrahim and Dr. Sanam (co-principal investigators) with an aim to decrease the national disability rate in the country, iii.
