BEIJING – CPInS (China-Pakistan Intelligent Systems ) Lab Director Dr Wu Jun has said that Pakistan, through further cooperation with China, is fully capable of becoming an artificial intelligence (AI) development hub in South Asia and the wider region. The CPInS Lab has been officially established at Pakistan’s National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in the beginning of year 2022 with joint efforts with the Guangzhou Institute of Software Application Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (CAS is accused by the US of working on dual systems–civil and military) At present, various researches are in progress in an orderly manner.
“We have made great progress in areas such as UAV control systems and AI recognition localisation. Our lab is starting the application of smart cities in Pakistan,” Dr Wu said in an interview with CEN. Through this platform, our mature research results could be deeply connected with local projects in Pakistan, providing smart city-related products and intelligent solutions according to local conditions. “We are able to effectively implement core technologies and products such as smart street lights and smart videos to improve local urban governance ability,” he added.
“Sci-tech cooperation is of great importance to Pakistan’s socio-economic development,” Seemab Latif, Head of the Pakistani side of the lab and Associate Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) at the NUST, said.
China’s AI industry, he said, “leads the world, as well as Pakistan’s scientific and technological development has huge potential, thus by deepening bilateral cooperation, Pakistan can make great progress in the field of Sci-Tech, by which own the potential to become an AI development center in South Asia.” According to Latif, that the lab was using technology from China to develop smart city projects such as efficient traffic management systems and infrastructure monitoring systems in Pakistan.
At present, on the basis of local conditions, the licence plate recognition system and intelligent security system developed by the lab have begun to be piloted in Pakistan. More Pakistani residents will be able to experience the safety and convenience brought by the application of intelligent systems, CEN reported. “Up to now, the results of cooperation are mushrooming,” Dr Wu said. Considering that Pakistan is often threatened by floods, he said, scientists from both sides pooled their wisdom to develop a vital result “UAV-assisted edge framework for real-time disaster management”, which provides a more scientific and effective solution for local flood fight. Apart from bringing technology overseas, talent exchange and training could be said to be another key purpose of establishing the lab, he added.
Nowadays, he added, the lab had recruited four outstanding postdoctoral fellows from Pakistan to work in Guangzhou for a long time, and would continue to recruit students in years to come. “We are working on a variety of exciting projects with Chinese counterparts, including activity detection, gait recognition, automatic licence plate detection and real-time recognition, as well as waste management,” said lab researcher Sahar Ershad. As an emerging economy, Pakistan’s infrastructure is booming day by day. A large number of road cameras and other equipment have not been intellectualised yet, which shows that the CPInS Lab has a great potential in the future. Generally speaking, the field of artificial intelligence in Pakistan has not yet formed an industry, but the country is never short on sci-tech talents.