To highlight the emergence of Fourth Industrial Revolution and Advancements in the emerging technology, Islamic University of Science & Technology (IUST) today organized a special lecture on ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution & the Age of Disruptive Technologies’ by the State's Chief Information Commissioner, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai for the varsity students.In his lecture, the CIC gave a detailed presentation of the subject elaborating on the essential features of fourth Industrial revolution and emerging technology. He talked about the pervasiveness of technology in various sectors and how it has eased human life at multiple levels.“Digital revolution, internet and IT are creating more and more efficient and productive systems through Artificial Intelligence, internet of things, Industrial Internet of Things, 3-D Printing and Quantum computing, Big Data analytics, Cloud storage, Virtual reality and these opportunities are all saddling across the physical, biological and technological avenues like health, education, research, human interactions and communication etc,” he said.
Drawing from his life experiences, he said that they have seen a shift from a ‘no-technology society’ to a ‘technologically driven world’ and we are ‘living in contradictions’ but today's generations cannot afford to go away from it or be redundant.He called up on students to become relevant for the future and ‘Up-skill’ and ‘Re-skill’ themselves accordingly. “The jobs that will be taken up by coming generations are not even there right now so you have to prepare yourself well and keep on upgrading your knowledge and skills consistently. There are regular job layoffs everyday in India and abroad,” he added.Ganai acknowledged that the State has a long way to go in order to have a digitized system and e-governance in place.In his Presidential Address Vice Chancellor Prof. Mushtaq A.
Siddiqi expressed his satisfaction over the productiveness of the lecture and called it a ‘unique lecture’ embedded with a plethora of knowledge.He said that technology can be negatively disruptive if it breaks the conventions causing negative impact and interventions but added that if used in a proper way is a blessing for humanity.He also shared his own experience in the field of immunological research and said, “During my research days in Japan, we made use of this disruptive technology and generated a genome to reconstitute the immune system of human beings infected with AIDS and published our work as well. This was a positive disruption of the technology.”Earlier Dean Academic Affairs Prof. Mushtaq A. Qurishi in his welcome address noted the significance of this lecture and how an informed society and positive technology when used properly can pave way for developments. He applauded the contributions made by Ganai and called him ‘an honest and upright administrator with remarkable credentials.The lecture was also attended by Deans, HoDs, Principals, Officers and faculty members of various Departments.