Centre for Robotics & Game Design

International Grants for students to work on innovative projects

PhD Faculty to help students work on their academic strengths

Dean’s Message

I am delighted to welcome you to the Faculty of Information Technology (FoIT) and Computer Science (FoIT & CS) at the University of Central Punjab. It opens exciting and challenging worlds in the domain of technology, research, and education here. The faculty of Information Technology offers a wide range of degree programs where you will enjoy interacting with state0of-art technology on high-end computers. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to help our aspiring students to become the technology entrepreneurs and highly skilled leaders of tomorrow. Our main goal is to train students to cope with and improve on the ever-evolving discipline of computing and the latest technologies in software and hardware systems.

The faculty has two departments, namely, the Department of Computer Sciences and the Department of Software Engineering. We have various programs at our bachelor’s, master and PhD levels in Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Data Science.

The history of the Department of Computer Sciences goes back to 1993 with the Establishment of the Punjab Institute of Computer Science (PICS). The undergraduate and graduate programs in this department enhanced the quality and reputation of higher education in the province through cooperation with other higher education institutions and promoted quality standards in the field of Computer Science and Information Technology. The graduates of Punjab Institute of Computer Science (PICS) not only became technology entrepreneurs but also secured top positions in renowned IT companies. With the start of new programs in Software Engineering and Data Science gives more choices to the students in the field of Information Technology.

In our research centres and laboratories, our faculty and students are working on various research projects. The research centres in Robotics and Security, Game Design, Health Care and Informatics were established in 2016. These research centres give students the platform where they can not only express their research ideas but also practically execute their ideas under the guidance of specialized faculty members. Our Centre for Robotics has research collaboration with Robotics Research Lab, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Marine System Research Lab, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany.

We encourage you to visit the UCP campus and meet our faculty. We are confident that our programs will meet your professional and technical aspirations.

Dr. Muhammad Amjad Iqbal

Dean, Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science


Overview

The Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science and Computer Science, established in 2002, has a trustworthy reputation and partnerships in education.  With a world-class faculty of 13 PhDs, research publications, and strong alumni, FOIT has undoubtedly achieved the materialisation of its vision to make Pakistan a leader in Computer Science and Software Development. FOIT Research and Development Centre, Game Centre, Centre for Medical Informatics, Centre for Learning Design, and Robotics Centre add another dimension to learning. The curriculum taught at FOIT is geared towards the high-tech industry and current trends, offering well-balanced theoretical and practical courses. The dynamic field at FOIT provides an array of opportunities to our students to see them excelling as data scientists, data analysts, computer service technicians, cybersecurity specialists and software developers. Each career opportunity requires a distinctive set of skills and personal traits; almost all IT jobs depend on strong technical knowledge, which the Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science at UCP imparts in its students.

Research Centres at the Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science

To make a meaningful impact on the IT industry, academia, and local communities, the Faculty of IT has launched six centres. These research and development centres conduct research and develop cutting-edge solutions with the potential to transform the growing field of IT. Productive research is in progress in the areas of Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Healthcare, Robotics, Embedded Systems, Mathematics, Information Retrieval and Internet of Things. A brief description of these centres is as follows:

Centre for Learning & Design

With the vision of making education effective, accessible and affordable for all students, the Faculty of IT at UCP launched the Centre for Learning & Design in March 2016. The Centre aims to radically change the field of education and revolutionize the methods of imparting education.

The Centre has developed the following educational tools:

  1.       Learning Management System (LMS) for FoIT (foitlms.ucp.edu.pk).
  2.       UCP Business School LMS (biz.ucp.edu.pk).
  3.       Hypermedia Learning System for English Language (hl.ucp.edu.pk)
  4.       UCP Zero Semester for Computing and Mathematics (zs.ucp.edu.pk)
  5.       Classroom Response System of Automatic Quizzes

Centre for Game Design

To facilitate the students who want to specialize in game design, especially in the EdTech space, the Faculty of IT at UCP has launched a centre for Game Design. This first of its kind centre is helping further to diversify the IT industry of Pakistan to enter the global game design market and building linkages between the computer game industry, computer scientists and instruction designers in academia.

Council for Mathematics, Teaching and Research

Major challenge that universities around the world face are poor learning achievements in mathematics courses. The faculty recognizes this fundamental problem and has moved to address it with the establishment of the Centre for Mathematics Teaching and Research, the first of its type in our country.

Centre for Robotics

The Centre for Robotics focuses on solving real-life challenges and enabling students to hone their skills with hands-on experience. At the Centre, students experiment with land-based and aerial robots, building machines with increasing levels of sophistication, incorporating artificial intelligence, play football or undertake surveillance tasks. The designing, modeling and controlling methods taught at the Centre equip the students with the skill set to enter the industry with confidence.

Centre for Healthcare Modeling & Informatics

The Faculty of IT at UCP has initiated state-of-the-art informatics research for improving public health practices across a number of methodological disciplines, particularly Health Informatics, Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Computer Science and Software Engineering. The focus of the research within the Centre is on the development of intelligent solutions at undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. levels to support evidence-based healthcare and to develop methodologies for utilizing Information and Communication Technologies to improve the quality.

Computing Facilities

In order to provide students with state-of-the-art facilities, FoIT is supported by a number of laboratories including 8 teaching, 4 research and 3 general laboratories equipped with the latest computers. In addition, FoIT has also established one hardware laboratory to address the growing needs of the faculty. These well-equipped laboratories play a pivotal role in nurturing our graduates. More than 1700 computers, an in-house ISP, virtual labs, research centres, campus-wide network connectivity and computing infrastructure maintained by highly qualified technical and support staff are available to students.