Boosting Pakistan's IT Industry: Initiative for Artificial Intelligence & Computing (PIAIC)

[guest9999]

President Alvi Launches Artificial Computing Initiative (PIAIC)

President Arif Alvi launched the Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence & Computing (PIAIC) a few days ago.

As per the details, “PIAIC is an interdisciplinary hub for mass education, research, and business in artificial intelligence (AI), data science, cloud computing, edge computing, blockchain, and the internet of things (IoT) related fields.”

The initiative comes in a bid to enable Pakistan in making an imprint on the world’s path towards the fourth industrial revolution. It aims to transform the fields of education, research, and business in Pakistan.

One-year programs available under the PIAIC include Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Native Computing, and Blockchain.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a one-year, four-quarter program that has been designed for absolute beginners. The AI program is divided into four quarters, i.e., AI Foundations, Introduction to Data Science and Deep Learning, Deploying AI Solutions, and AI in Practice.

The second program is the Cloud Native Computing and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Specialist. This one-year program is also split into four parts, i.e., Cloud Native Computing Foundations, Developing Cloud Native Microservices, Kubernetes in Practice, and AWS Application Development.

The third program, Blockchain, includes Foundations of Blockchain, Smart Contract Development, Dapp Development, and Advanced Blockchain Topics.

The registration for the programs starting tomorrow. More details regarding PIAIC can be reached here.

https://www.piaic.org/

 

[313ghazi]

Sounds great but I think lacks real depth. Programs like this are great, they help people get into a new area, but in a years time, will these people really have the skills to make a living using what they learnt? Will they be able to apply it to industry?

I would like to see largescale radical steps taken.

1. I want every school kid to start learning to code from a very early age. I have a kid in primary school who being taught to code at school in the UK.

2. I want these newer and upto date fields of IT to form core components of Computer Science courses in our universities.

3. I want funding available for PhD level research into these areas.

All this will provide our industry with a workforce prepped for the 21st century. Short courses are a mere introductionary step.

 

[guest9999]

Sounds great but I think lacks real depth. Programs like this are great, they help people get into a new area, but in a years time, will these people really have the skills to make a living using what they learnt? Will they be able to apply it to industry?

I would like to see largescale radical steps taken.

1. I want every school kid to start learning to code from a very early age. I have a kid in primary school who being taught to code at school in the UK.

2. I want these newer and upto date fields of IT to form core components of Computer Science courses in our universities.

3. I want funding available for PhD level research into these areas.

All this will provide our industry with a workforce prepped for the 21st century. Short courses are a mere introductionary step.

To their credit, PTI has a program to train kids in programming, at least in KPK province.

https://twitter.com/x/status/996707900872675328

For your question regarding practicality, that remains yet to be seen. However, this is still a good step in the right direction.

Even Indian coders are mostly rote-learned and don't really contribute much to innovation and the more advanced fields like big data, AI, etc. However, that still was beneficial for them as their IT exports are over a $100 billion dollars. It also ensures they get first hand access to H-1B visas which provides their Indian IT companies access to US markets, and also eventually solidifies Indian lobbying in the US.

See https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...rts-president-trumps-trade-pressure-on-india/

We depend too heavily on exports of textiles and raw materials.

 

[zulu]

@ps3linux @Verve Its in Karachi what u say join kar ln yaar mery munh main tu pani aa rahaa haii progs dekh dekh ky "artificial intelligence (AI), data science, cloud computing, edge computing, blockchain, and the internet of things (IoT)"""

 

[313ghazi]

Really good to see kids programming, it's a shame they're not all sat at computers, but everything takes time.

Rote learning in programming has no place. You have to apply the methods you learn to be a programmer.

 

[Rusty]

Really good to see kids programming, it's a shame they're not all sat at computers, but everything takes time.

Rote learning in programming has no place. You have to apply the methods you learn to be a programmer.

What people don't seem to understand is that in the modern age you phone can "memorize" more information then you will ever be able to. Memorization has no value.
What has value is the ability to think for yourself and solve problems as well working as a group with others to build or solve something.

 

[guest9999]

 

[scionofPakwattan]

Sounds great but I think lacks real depth. Programs like this are great, they help people get into a new area, but in a years time, will these people really have the skills to make a living using what they learnt? Will they be able to apply it to industry?

I would like to see largescale radical steps taken.

1. I want every school kid to start learning to code from a very early age. I have a kid in primary school who being taught to code at school in the UK.

2. I want these newer and upto date fields of IT to form core components of Computer Science courses in our universities.

3. I want funding available for PhD level research into these areas.

All this will provide our industry with a workforce prepped for the 21st century. Short courses are a mere introductionary step.

I agree but its a good initiative to start developing human capital in these fields. I recently read a book called 21 lessons for 21st century by Noah Harari where he has mentioned how AI will take smaller jobs away but will also produce more opportunities in other technical fields related to AI. I agree with him and I think its a good initiative to start developing people in these fields and gradually start introducing more specializations as the need develops. Maybe in a year or two we should see more specialized courses for these people who have done these basic certificates and have found jobs in the field and now they need more specialized training to move up into the field.

 

[Crusher]

Really good to see kids programming, it's a shame they're not all sat at computers, but everything takes time.

Rote learning in programming has no place. You have to apply the methods you learn to be a programmer.

Rote learning in programming has a huge place in IT sector and indian programmers are the prime example of it as Indian "programmers" are predominantly copy-paste programmers with low IQs and they are employed mostly as new mass production sector of "IT-Labor" for simple but time consuming "tasks" like web development or software testing etc. Indian programmers intelligence is just overestimated by Pakistanis. This is the online ranking of country specific programmers from all over the world, Indian programmer's performance was at no. 31, that tells a lot about their so-called "talent" in competitive programming. Using a software or testing a software is NOT the same as "creating" an innovative Software/Code/Program from scratch.

Source: https://fossbytes.com/which-country-has-best-computer-programmers-china-russia-india-us/

 

[Syed1.]

Indian "programmers" are predominantly copy-paste programmers with low IQs and they are employed mostly as new sector of "IT-Labor" for simple but time consuming "tasks" like software testing etc. Indian programmers' intelligence is just overestimated by Pakistanis. This is the online ranking of country specific programmers from all over the world, Indian programmer's performance was at no. 31, that tells a lot about their so-called "talent" in programming. Using a software or testing a software is NOT the same as "creating" an innovatice Software/Code from scratch.

Source: https://fossbytes.com/which-country-has-best-computer-programmers-china-russia-india-us/

Bhai yeh na hi share kartay tu behtar tha it shows Pak even behind Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria

 

[maithil]

Start with ITES and then move into core IT.

 

[Nilgiri]

Indian "programmers" are predominantly copy-paste programmers with low IQs and they are employed mostly as new sector of "IT-Labor" for simple but time consuming "tasks" like software testing etc. Indian programmers' intelligence is just overestimated by Pakistanis. This is the online ranking of country specific programmers from all over the world, Indian programmer's performance was at no. 31, that tells a lot about their so-called "talent" in programming. Using a software or testing a software is NOT the same as "creating" an innovatice Software/Code from scratch.

Source: https://fossbytes.com/which-country-has-best-computer-programmers-china-russia-india-us/

As long as we rank above such countries like Denmark, Israel and Norway and just under US and UK......and you lot are below BD and Nigeria.....it tells its own story yet again.

Not to forget what the utility of some specific ranking is to a larger business in first place.

It's really pitiful the state you lot are in regarding this sector....but you can keep trying, wishing and hoping tho (instead of actually working to improve):

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.GSR.NFSV.CD?locations=IN-PK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

1. Indian American (2016) : $122,026 [2]
2. Taiwanese American (2016) : $90,221 [3]
3. Filipino American (2016) : $88,745 [2]
4. British American (2016) : $79,872[3]
5. Austrian American (2016) : $78,127[3]
6. Russian American (2016): $77,841[3]
7. Latvian American (2016): $77,636[3]
8. Bulgarian American (2016): $76,861[3]

.... (break)

57. Syrian American (2016): $63,096[3]
58. Pakistani American : $62,848[4][7]
59. Albanian American (2016) : $62,624[3]
60. Indonesian American : $61,943[4]
61.Guyanese American (2016) : $60,968[3]
62. Nigerian American (2016): $60,732[3]

 

[CHN Bamboo]

Artificial intelligence was very popular in China a few years ago.

However, the tide of capital has receded.

 

[nahtanbob]

Indian "programmers" are predominantly copy-paste programmers with low IQs and they are employed mostly as new mass production sector of "IT-Labor" for simple but time consuming "tasks" like web development or software testing etc. Indian programmers intelligence is just overestimated by Pakistanis. This is the online ranking of country specific programmers from all over the world, Indian programmer's performance was at no. 31, that tells a lot about their so-called "talent" in competitive programming. Using a software or testing a software is NOT the same as "creating" an innovative Software/Code/Program from scratch.

Source: https://fossbytes.com/which-country-has-best-computer-programmers-china-russia-india-us/

hackerrank is not a good indicator of software development prowess. it tells that the candidates know one particular programming language, algorithms and data structures

it does not test knowledge of core subjects - embedded systems, databases, distributed systems, compilers, operating systems. Not to mention software design or soft skills needed to be a good developer.

we won't talk about domain knowledge needed to develop products

As long as we rank above such countries like Denmark, Israel and Norway and just under US and UK......and you lot are below BD and Nigeria.....it tells its own story yet again.

Not to forget what the utility of some specific ranking is to a larger business in first place.

It's really pitiful the state you lot are in regarding this sector....but you can keep trying, wishing and hoping tho (instead of actually working to improve):

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.GSR.NFSV.CD?locations=IN-PK

View attachment 568647

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

1. Indian American (2016) : $122,026 [2]
2. Taiwanese American (2016) : $90,221 [3]
3. Filipino American (2016) : $88,745 [2]
4. British American (2016) : $79,872[3]
5. Austrian American (2016) : $78,127[3]
6. Russian American (2016): $77,841[3]
7. Latvian American (2016): $77,636[3]
8. Bulgarian American (2016): $76,861[3]

.... (break)

57. Syrian American (2016): $63,096[3]
58. Pakistani American : $62,848[4][7]
59. Albanian American (2016) : $62,624[3]
60. Indonesian American : $61,943[4]
61.Guyanese American (2016) : $60,968[3]
62. Nigerian American (2016): $60,732[3]

I am sure on the average Indians outperform pakistanis. some of the differential here is a function of Indian women working and pakistani women staying home.

 

[Nilgiri]

hackerrank is not a good indicator of software development prowess. it tells that the candidates know one particular programming language, algorithms and data structures

it does not test knowledge of core subjects - embedded systems, databases, distributed systems, compilers, operating systems. Not to mention software design or soft skills needed to be a good developer.

we won't talk about domain knowledge needed to develop products



I am sure on the average Indians outperform pakistanis. some of the differential here is a function of Indian women working and pakistani women staying home.

Yes for household income, it can be the case (propensity for adults of both genders in family unit to be in employment).

Last I looked at the detailed US census data regarding this, there were also lot of other correlated factors like average education level of the person, family size+composition, accrued investment flows etc.