Awantipora: A two-day capacity-building workshop on the Convergence of HPC and Artificial Intelligence began at the Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipora today. The workshop organized by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Department of Computer Science, IUST is sponsored by the Higher Educational Department, Government of Jammu and Kashmir.
The workshop aims to enhance the capacities of college teachers about recent developments in the domain of Artificial intelligence and how High-Performance Computing (HPC) and utilization of state-of-the-art AI algorithms created by IUST. Besides scholars and faculty members from IUST, about forty teachers from different colleges of the union territory are participating in the workshop.
Addressing the participants, Dr. Shakeel Ahmed Romshoo (Vice Chancellor IUST & Chief Guest of the workshop) mentioned that such capacity-building programs are imperative for enhancing the capacities and competence of our trainers and creating a learning environment for AI education. He encouraged colleges should network with universities like IUST to undertake collaborative projects. He also talked about the role of HPC in areas like climate change, disaster management Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. He further said that IUST is planning to introduce a Masters program in Artificial intelligence.
Prof. Manzoor A. Malik (Dean Academics, IUST) talked at length about the role of HPC in physics. He said, “the present technology is advancing at a tremendous pace and the one lagging is out of the race within minutes”. He appreciated the efforts of IUST Computer Science department for working on projects that aim to develop solutions to the contemporary problems of society.
Prof. Naseer Iqbal (Registrar IUST and a professor of Physics) discussed the role of HPC in astrophysics and related study areas. Highlighting the importance of technology and AI, Prof. Iqbal said, “IUST is excelling in many areas, and is at the forefront in the digitalization of several procedures at the University. He expressed his optimism that IUST will soon emerge as a University of excellence with a reputation as a research institution across the globe”.
Professor A H Moon, Dean School of Engineering and Technology & Dean Research IUST spoke at length about the relevance of good quality research at academic institutions and appreciated the role of IUST for the same. He said, “the research canvas of IUST has undergone a tremendous change’ Discussing the concept of parallelism and distributed computing, and its relevance in contemporary society, he further said, “IUST has succeeded to mount HPC on a cloud and has made it accessible to other researchers and trainers”.
Speaking about the purpose of such training, Dr. Asif Assad (Faculty, Department of Computer Engineering, IUST) said, “The college teachers can remotely access the HPC facility developed at an investment of 3.5 crores at IUST and it is the only one of its type in Kashmir”. He said that IUST is also investing its human resources in the research on important technologies including AI, Machine learning Deep learning, block chain technology, and cyber security.
Dr. Rumaan Bashir (Associate Dean, SoET) highlighted the importance of HPC and discussed how HPC harnesses the power of supercomputers and integrates fields of computer science like computer security, programming languages, algorithms, networks, etc. She said that the convergence of HPC & AI will pave way for innovations in science and technology, business, industry, and economy. Dr. Manzoor Rasool (Faculty, Department of Computer Science) presented a vote of thanks and assured that more such training programs will be conducted by IUST in future too.

KR Desk