Fauzia Fakhruddin, is the Senior IT Manager at NED
University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi. She was among the
few outstanding students of the NED University who were retained by
the University soon after getting through the exams of Bachelor of
Engineering (B.E) Computer Systems Engineering in 1998. She joined as
Assistant Manager Data Processing in May 1998 and within a short span
of time was promoted to the position of Senior IT Manager in July
2000.
Fauzia carries the credit of the success story to
his professional career as the Incharge of the NED's Library
Computerization Project. It is one of the first major Library
computerization project in Pakistan which offers Database searching
facilities available worldwide through Z39.50 gateway as well as of
local database. These services are available through the Library web
site, for which Oracle RDBMS software was used as backend database.
The team efforts for putting the NED Library on line were duly
acknowledged by the IT professionals as well as the Governor of Sindh,
when he visited the NED University in 1999.
PAGE: Would you like to highlight the
activities carried by the IT Department in NED.
Fauzia: Beside the computerization of the
NED library, it gives me a great sense of job satisfaction that the IT
team also did a commendable job of computerization of Examination
Department. I was the leader of that team which developed a Student
Record Management Software by using Oracle RDBMS software both as
front and backend tools. This project was also accomplished, tested
and launched well ahead of time and with 99 per cent accuracy. This
was for the first time in Pakistan that in house developed software
was applied and tested on live data.
PAGE: What are the objectives of the IT
section in your University.
Fauzia: The NED University has its own ISP
and Internet Facility along its own internal NETWORK so that all
students can access it from their own departments. The objectives of
the facility are including Interactive Web-based Teaching/ Learning,
Access to Databases and Information Agencies, Linkages with
Universities/ Research Institutions, Resource Share, Continuing
Engineering Education, Web Page Development/ Web site management and
On-line Training, MIS & ISO 9000. The University intends holding
Online Courses in collaboration with other Universities both local and
foreign. These courses could be on subjects in which required
expertise is not available. Interactive desktop video conferencing for
discussions on research topics can also be one of the possible future
developments, she said.
PAGE: The global proliferation of IT is
being described as historic opportunities for the developing
countries. What do you suggest to make out the best use of IT talents
to hit the desired economic goals.
Fauzia: Lack of coordination between the
market and the education centers is one of the areas, which needs
immediate attention of the decision-makers. We have already lost a
great deal of precious time in conventional type of education system
which was designed without giving a serious thought to the market
requirements. There is a need of close coordination between various
segments of the economy and the education sector so that the courses
are designed in conformity to the needs of the day, requirement of the
market. To match with the swift changes taking place around the world
as well as within the country is of vital importance for survival of
the economy and the education sector is not exception to this, she
said.
PAGE: What steps you would suggest for
creation of the culture of close inter-action between industry or for
that matter other segments of the economy and the education sector?
Fauzia: Where there is a will there is a
way. Both the active players of the economy as well as the education
sector in need to work together in close collaboration. This will help
stabilizing the demand and supply position. If the market-led
education is imparted, the educated persons will not run from pillar
to post to get a job on one hand while the industry or other sectors
of the economy will be able to produce quality products with skilled
manpower, she said. The public sector organizations are still working
with the conventional manual system in this IT age leading to enormous
problems and complexities both for the people as well as for the
organizations. For example, KESC has to deal with over 1.4 million
consumers in Karachi. Since the entire system has not been
computerized, you may witness a scene of the fish market at any
billing office of the utility company. This is one example; there are
scores of such cases in public sector organizations. Our students, at
the IT universities can be utilized by giving them assignments for
computerization of the procedures in these organizations. This
exercise could prove beneficial in diversified way. Things, which are
in a mess in the large public sector organizations, could be improved,
students will get on the job training and the people would get
relieved of the topsy-turvy handling in these organizations.
