1. CERN
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centers for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions. Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 20 Member States.
http://ciit-isb.edu.pk/Research/Cern.aspx
2. Center for Research in Management Sciences (CRMS)
The Center for Research in Management Sciences (CRMS) is based within the Management Sciences Department at COMSATS University Islamabad. CRMS has a number of active researchers from across the Finance and Accounting, Economics, Management, Marketing, and Information Technology subject areas within the department. CRMS is established with a view to promote research activities that lead to high quality research output. Another aim of CRMS is to promote meaningful exchange of ideas and collaboration between regional industry and academics.
3. Business Incubation Center (BIC)
The Business Incubation Center at COMSATS University Islamabad aims at commercialization of CUI Research and Development. This is to be achieved through rapid and sustainable development to economy by deploying knowledge inputs to the society. The vision relies on education and technology inputs especially that available or developed at our university to industry, agriculture, health and in all areas of CUI expertise and to contribute towards improvement of socio-economic structure of Pakistan.
http://ww2.comsats.edu.pk/bic
4. Centre for Micro and Nano Devices (CMND)
Center for Micro and Nano Devices for versatile applications is set up through a development grant by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The purpose of the Center is to have the capabilities of designing and fabricating semiconductor devices for various applications. The Center is first of its kind and is fully equipped with device fabrication facilities. The aim of Center is also to produce trained human resource in semiconductor processing. Major projects being carried out in the Center are on development of environmental and biological sensors, particularly addressing the needs of the country. The major thrust is to combine the bottom – up and top – down approaches to develop devices for applications. The Center has five faculty members and a number of graduate students working in different areas of nano science and technology.
5. CAST (Center for Advanced Studies in Telecommunication)
The Centre for Advance Studies in Telecommunication (CAST) was established to enhance research and innovation which is the main critical success factor of the University. This centre aims to develop a community of researchers among student and staff, as well as to achieve excellence in research and product development. This Centre provides support and assistance to academic staff in their quest for research funding and other support through liaison with funding bodies, industry and business community.
The team at CAST is working on many R&D projects in collaboration with various organizations and was also able to obtain significant research funding which shows a confidence in expertise and dedication of the team.
http://ww2.comsats.edu.pk/cast
6. Centre for Climate Research and Development (CCRD)
Launching of Centre for Climate Research and Development (CCRD) at COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad. Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate change. Ensuring food, water and energy security is critical for the country. The climate crisis and its adverse impact of climate change require monitoring and assessment of climate variability and measures to address challenges of adaptation and mitigation. For this purpose the COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) has set up the Center for Climate Research and Development (CCRD) in Islamabad to study extreme weather conditions and associated environmental challenges by improving capabilities for scientific research as well as to carry out studies and proposals on theconsequences of climate change leading to formulation of adaptation and mitigation strategies.The CUI Center for Climate Research and Development (CCRD) will comprise multi-disciplinary research groups. Broadly CCRD will be working on Monitoring of Weather Data Climate Change and its Variability, impact assessment of climate change, adaptation and mitigation, and trans-disciplinary issues. In terms of specific areas the CCRD will work on the investigation of convective storms and mesoscale systems including cloud physics and atmospheric dynamics, precipitation and fog formation, predictability, observational as well as numerical modelling especially hydrological model, monsoon dynamic, climatology of glaciers and snow, hydrology and glaciers of Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau and its vicinity regions. CCRD will also focus on analysis of direct and indirect effects of various types of aerosols on climate, Influence of black carbon on Asian monsoon and climate, Multi-model investigation of Asian climate change and its variability, monitoring atmospheric pollution using satellite data, land use and land cover mapping and impacts, agriculture and water resource management, spatio-temporal analysis of extreme events, snow and glaciers monitoring, satellite based precipitation assessment and study of climate based urban planning and infrastructure.CCRD has established partnership with the prestigious Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) of Germany. Prof. Dr. Juergen P. Kropp, Head of International Cooperation of PIK visited CUI to meet with the Rector, Dr. Syed Muhammad Junaid Zaidi (S.I) of CUI, Ambassador Shahid Kamal, Advisor to Rector, Faculty of CCRD and members of the research groups. Dr. Kropp also attended a workshop organized by the Department of Metrology and visited the Abbottabad campus of CUI where he met Faculty members from the Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences. To formalize the collaboration between CCRD and PIK a five year Cooperation Agreement was signed on 5 April, 2013 at CUI, Islamabad. The agreement will promote interest in research activities between two respective institutions, facilitate exchange of scientists, and support the progress of the Centre for Climate Research & Development (CCRD). The cooperation will include exchange of students, doctoral candidates or postdoctoral assistants, holding of jointly organized symposia, conferences and meetings on research issues and setting up of joint research projects at the Asian and global levels.
7. CISCO Regional Academy
The Cisco Networking Academy Program is a comprehensive e-learning instructor led program that provides students with the Internet technology skills essential in a global economy. The Networking Academy delivers web-based content, online assessment, student performance tracking, hands-on labs, instructor training and support, and preparation for industry standard certifications.
Since 2001 CUI has been working in partnership with Cisco Systems to develop local academies for the Cisco Networking Academy Program. The primary focus of these academies is to train network specialists, IT technicians, engineers, and professionals in the skills necessary for success in the field of Internet technology.
In the past 10 years CUI has provided training and support to local academy instructors and students in CUI and in public/private sector universities local academies throughout the Pakistan. The CUI-CRA currently administers 25 local academies and has trained around two hundred instructors for the local academies (including its own).
http://ciit-isb.edu.pk/QuickLinks/CISCO Regional Academy.htm
8. IRCBM - Interdisciplinary Research Center in Biomedical Materials
Dr. Ihtesham-U-Rehman, conceived the idea of establishing the first ever Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials (IRCBM) with in Pakistan long before the Earthquake in October 2005. However, soon after this natural disaster Dr. S. M. Junaid Zaidi joined forces with Dr. Ihtesham and decided to establish IRCBM at M. A. Jinnah campus of COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Lahore. In August 2006, Dr. Junaid Zaidi gave permission and Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan later approved Rs. 33.323 Millions to establish IRCBM and faculty block at the Lahore Campus and construction of the purpose built block was started in October 2006. Mr. Muhammad Usman joined CUI, Lahore in February 2006 and took up the challenge of setting up IRCBM. He not only supervised the construction and furnishing of the centre but also prepared a PC-1 amounting to Rs. 486 millions which was submitted to HEC of Pakistan for the establishment of Department of Biomedical Materials at CUI, Lahore.
Dr. Shahzad Mufti joined IRCBM in December 2007 as an Advisor/Incharge of the Centre. He played an instrumental role in establishing the centre and development of the team. He also wrote the PC-1 entitled “Strengthening of the department of biomedical material sciences at CUI, Lahore” which was submitted for funding to Ministry of Science and Technology of Pakistan. This PC-1 amounting to Rs. 38 million was approved by the Ministry in April 2009.
The centre was officially inaugurated by the Chief Minister of the Punjab, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif on the 28th October 2008.Due to the hard work of the entire team the centre now has well equipped bioceramics laboratory and range of equipment is on order to establish characterisation, polymer and biological laboratories.
http://ircbm.ciitlahore.edu.pk
9. Biomass Conversion Research Center (BCRC)
The strategic area will have the following activities for research: feedstock development, conversion processes, system integration, and public policy matters.
Overcoming Biomass Recalcitrance Most biomass energy is “locked up” as inaccessible carbohydrates in the form of cellulose and hemicellulose. Fermentation of these carbohydrates could generate significant quantities of ethanol, a versatile liquid fuel that fits well with our existing vehicle fleet and fuel distribution infrastructure. That is, cellulose and hemicellulose could do this if they were not so difficult to convert to fermentable sugars. If we are to unlock the potential of biomass replace fossil fuels, particularly as sources of liquid transportation fuels, we must overcome this problem, frequently described as biomass “recalcitrance”. Biomass materials are solids, and there are obvious difficulties associated with using these materials as direct replacements for liquid transportation fuels. As this picture illustrates, it is difficult to fuel your car directly on biomass. The BCRC seeks to overcome the recalcitrance of biomass and convert biomass to liquid fuel products using ammonia to increase the reactivity of cellulose and hemicellulose. This process, called ammonia fiber explosion or AFEX, is followed by biological conversion using enzymes, microbes or other approaches to produce liquid fuels and chemicals.
Coproducing Food and Fuel A frequent concern about biomass fuels is that they might reduce food supplies. We believe the opposite is true—we believe the evidence is that large scale conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals will make human food and animal feed both cheaper and more abundant as foods/feeds are coproduced with fuels and chemicals from plant biomass. For example, much plant biomass also contains protein, a valuable animal feed/human food. Our studies show that we can simultaneously reduce the amount of land required to generate large amounts of fuel from biomass and improve the overall process economics by recovering protein within an overall system producing fuels and chemicals from biomass. For more details, see NRDC's "Growing Energy" report in the "Publications" section.. Biorefinery Approach Ultimately, plant material will be converted to fuels, chemicals, feeds and foods in large, integrated processing systems called “biorefineries”. These biorefineries will be intimately linked with the crop production systems supplying the plant raw materials and probably with animal feeding systems using the protein coproducts from the biorefinery. Corn wet mills and corn dry mills, such as this Archer Daniels Midland corn wet mill in Decatur, Illinois, are prototypes of future cellulosic biorefineries. We seek to understand the behavior of these biorefineries within the context of the overall systems in which they will operate, particularly the planetary cycles of carbon and nitrogen in which these human systems are embedded.