Center for Advance Studies in Engineering, Islamabad (CASE)

It shall give us immense please and absolute resolve once we trace back the days when CASE was just an idea in our minds. It was in January of 2001 when we would formally talk about establishing an institution of higher technical learning in Pakistan. We would debate on its feasibility and gauge our commitment to this national cause. At that time, we as a group identified the dissemination of advanced knowledge in engineering and management to intellectual minds of our professional engineers and scientist as the Most needed contribution of our time. We also take pride in focusing on graduate education much before the formation of HEC, where the government very rightly realized that the only way to bring Pakistan on road to prosperity is in creating knowledge economy by developing human resource in higher technical education.

It was April of 1998, when a research and development organization named Communications Enabling Technologies (CET) Pakistan was established in Rawalpindi. Soon, CET headed by Dr Khan attracted some of the best professionals in Pakistan. Dr Farrukh Kamran, Dr Saeed Ur Rahman, and Dr Sohail Naqvi joined CET in its early days. These individuals later played a key role in establishing CASE. The group was then augmented by few more outstanding professionals like Dr Ismail Shah, Dr Amir Iqbal Bhatti, Dr Amir Qayyum, Dr Imtiaz Taj, Saleem Ahmed Khan, Mohsin Rahmatullah, Hammad Khan, Zaheer Ahmed and Durdana Habib.

To realize this dream Engineering Education Trust (EET) was established in May 2001. EET approached UET Taxila for affiliation of its graduate program. Dr Habibullah Jamal then Vice Chancellor UET Taxila readily approved and extended affiliation to the program. To start the program, CASE was established on September 11, 2001 at Software Technology Park, 5-A Constitution Avenue, F-5/1, Islamabad. CASE was inaugurated by then Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman. Dr. Kamal Athar was appointed as the Director CASE. The institute had the support of an excellent teaching faculty of 9 PhDs and 3 MScs. In the beginning, CASE had a small campus at fourth floor of STP1 and only Computer Engineering discipline was offered. In the first semester, two courses in the Computer Engineering program were offered and more than 60 students were enrolled in these courses. In spring 2002 semester, more than 100 students were enrolled in computer engineering program. As the number of students increased, the campus acquired the 5th floor of the STP1 in summer 2002. The enrollment for PhD students was also started in this semester. CASE has been enrolling HEC scholars in its PhD program since HEC started its Indigenous PhD Fellowship initiative. Several faculty members of CASE are on HEC approved supervisors list.

Due to overwhelming demand of students and industry professionals, CASE took the initiative of establishing the department of Engineering Management in fall 2002 with Dr. Ali Sajid taking responsibilities as Chairman. In this semester, 192 students registered in Computer Engineering and 41 students in Engineering Management. It was in spring 2003 when the first CASE student completed his MSc computer engineering degree requirements. The year 2003 also marked a significant turn in CASE history when the team started Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE) in January 2003 with the aim of working on projects of dire technical needs of Pakistan. With this focus in mind, CASE was also moved to its current location at Sir Syed Memorial Building, 19-Attaturk Avenue, G-5/1 Islamabad. CASE and CARE now co-exist in this building displaying an ideal model of industry-academia partnership and collaboration. The CASE team has been working round the clock to ensure higher quality of education and technical training. The effects of which are quite evident in different organizations where CASE graduates and students are practicing the knowledge they have gained to create innovative engineering solutions and managing engineering projects.

CASE team while managing this growth keeps improving processes and procedures to maintain the highest level of academic quality. In May 2004, Professor Ali Haider joined this team as President CASE. Under his leadership, CASE continued on the path to success. In the same year, CASE-CARE team decided to start its undergraduate program in Electrical Engineering. The program was started in collaboration with SSMS as SS-CARE School of Engineering. In March of 2008 SS-CARE School of Engineering was merged into CASE. First batch from this program has already completed the degree requirements and the program has gotten its due accreditation from Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC). CASE has heavily invested in improving the infrastructure of the building, adding faculty offices, PhD scholars’ enclave, library renovation and establishing research labs for its students. CASE has been on the forefront of research activities and managed to acquire research funding from Cisco Systems and PTCL. CASE’s Architecture and DSP Lab is funded from Cisco System and PTCL research grants. CARE, the research counterpart of CASE has been awarded projects worth Millions of Dollars. CARE has been successfully executing these projects and providing industrial insight into CASE engineering and management programs. CASE continues to grow and currently more than 900 students are enrolled in CASE programs.

To take CASE to its new heights, in April 2006 EET signed a joint venture with Sir Syed Memorial Society (SSMS) with the common aim of establishing a world class university in Islamabad. Sir Syed Memorial Society pledged the physical infrastructure for the establishment of the university. The joint-venture partners, EET and the SSMS applied to HEC for degree granting status. The institute will be renamed as Sir Syed CASE Institute of Technology. After formal evaluation, HEC has already issued its acceptance. The draft charter document has been submitted to HEC for onward processing by the concerned ministries and government agencies. Government of Pakistan has already allocated a 200 Kanals of Land for the university in Islamabad.