How ICT lifts study

Hence it claims its share in playing the most imperative role in the development of a country's social and economical establishments.

With this phenomenon in mind, the University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS) and its software development club (SDC) and digital design and development club (3D) organised the 3-day long 'Brac Bank IT Fair 2006', that was held on the UITS campus ground in Gulshan, from April 22 -24.

Science and ICT Minister, Abdul Moyeen Khan inaugurated the fair.

"We focused on promoting the use of ICT as a potential tool to provide students in developing and practicing their skills as IT professionals," said Dr. Hafizur Rahman, Dean, School of Computer Science and Engineering, UITS and convener of the fair.

Rahman also said that the thought behind the fair had an incentive in creating a broader scope, awareness and opportunity among the youth and existing public and private industrial ICT sectors.

"Such effort from our educational institutions is overwhelmingly expected to solicit a larger contribution in developing and flourishing the juvenile and nurturing ICT sectors of the country," he said, adding how the ICT industry and the institutions should work hand in hand to produce a common platform for cultivating the immense possibilities of social and economical growth that lie in the augmentation of the country's ICT prospects.

Three seminars and two workshops were arranged and conducted by IT professionals from UITS, other universities and experts from the IT sector.

Participating in the fair were Dhaka University (DU), Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (Buet), American International University of Bangladesh (AIUB), United International University (UIU), and Daffodil Institution of Information Technology (DIIT) and UITS.

BRAC Bank Ltd., PHP Group, and Rangs Motors Ltd., along with other local corporate organisations sponsored the fair and its contents.

"The primary obstacle in organising such an event was to convince sponsors that we were capable of handling such a project," said Sanjoy Kumar Roy, senior lecturer UITS, who was the brain behind the fair.

Roy said that with the success of this first such event by UITS, sponsors have gained confidence on its capabilities and any such later efforts would be pursued slickly. He said UITS would organise such a fair next year as well.

He added that the fair help to find the gap between the industry's expectation and the students' knowledge. "Technology is a continuously changing," Roy said. To be updated as a learner, one must know what the industry's requires at present.

"Fairs such as this brings to students and the industry under one roof," he added.

The seminar 'Fibre Optics Technology' was held by Metronet Bangladesh Ltd., and 'Great potential of ICT in Bangladesh', was conducted by Dr A M Chowdhury, director, Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), took place on the first day.

Both seminars were extended for more than an hour each while the response stayed overwhelming, the audience were students and professionals who visited the fair.

Metronet exhibited fibre optic technology with the help of the latest equipment that the company used to meet their practical field purposes, cutting of the optical fibre and redoing it.

"It is crucial that the operations on the fibre be accurate, as the fibre only has a diameter of 6 to 8 microns (micrometer), and thus the instruments we use are equipped with diamonds as cutters," explained Ferdous Azam Khan, chief executive officer of Metronet, who stood as the fundamental speaker and exhibitor at the seminar.

Talking to the audience, Chowdhury from BCC expounded on how the growth of ICT sectors in Bangladesh had a colossal possibility to emerge as reality, as this field mainly focused on human resources, which the country has in abundance.

Chowdhury said that more effort should be taken by institutions to intensify promoting the number of local IT graduates, a vital factor that a country should have in order to observe growth in its ICT territorial efforts.

Bdjobs.com, held its seminar on the recent trends in ICT jobs from the country's perspective were discussed.

Along with the seminars, two workshops were conducted titled 'Microprocessor and Microcontroller based system design' and 'Using PHP in web development', respectively.

An impressive number of participants flowed in to attend the workshops.

"Such technical workshops, and that too free of cost, showed the possibilities that arrangement of any fair with technical workshops likewise is bound to attract people from the industry, who target a growth of personal knowledge-base," said Lakkhan Kumar Chakraborty, a professional working for one of the most grown companies in the telecommunication industry of the country.

The fair also included an IT quiz show and a gaming competition, along with a science-fiction movie show twice a day on each of the three days. A panel of IT professionals as judges was created to evaluate purposes of the software showcases and the IT quiz results.

"This is the first time such a competition was held where the viewers' choice was also taken into consideration," said Dr Rahman, mentioning how the software showcase was judged by a 20 to 80 proportion of viewers' vote to judges' evaluation.

The closing and award giving ceremony had Dr M Asaduzzaman, chairman, University Grant Commission (UGC), as the chief guest. Also present were Dr A Majeed Khan, vice chancellor, UITS, Sufi Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, founder chairman, PHP Group, Mahbubul Alam, editor, The Independent, Abdul Matin Patwari, vice chancellor, University of Asia Pacific, and Abedur Rahman Sikdar, head of non-funded retail banking, Brac Bank.

"The signs are enough to indicate that we are in the right pursuit," said Dr Majeed Khan, declaring that the success on this fair would be celebrated by UITS by organising such a fair once again in the upcoming year.

"Along with such an IT fair, where software showcase held priority on exhibition, we will also have a Digital fair next year to exhibit a hardware showcase," said Khan, while he congratulated the university's Software Club and its Digital Design Club in their endeavours.

It should be mentioned here that UITS is one of the youngest universities of the nation, which started its journey in August 2003.

"UITS had promised to contribute towards an IT driven society, being the first private IT-based university of the country, and I believe through such fairs, UITS has shown how it confines the required capability to achieve its dream of adding towards promoting the ICT growth that has become vital for the country's economic welfare," said Dr Asaduzzaman.

Later at the closing ceremony, certificates were handed out to the winners of the IT quiz and the gaming competition, while cash prizes were offered for the winners of the software showcase. UIU extracted the first prize -- a cash prize of Tk 10,000, UITS took the second position and retrieved Tk 7,000, while AIUB came third with a cash prize of Tk 5,000.